The Water and Sanitation Department has started criminal cases against municipalities nationwide for violating water and environmental regulations.
It says the affected municipalities are liable for sewage spills and do not comply with the government’s clean-up directives. Last month, the Govan Mbeki Local Municipality in Mpumalanga was slapped with a R200-million fine for pumping raw sewage into rivers. Anet Muir, the department’s Chief Director responsible for compliance with water regulations, elaborates.
“When we have non-compliance, the department will first issue administrative action. So we’ll issue a notice that says we’ve detected that there was this non-compliance, and they are all allowed to provide representation. If non-compliance is not addressed, we will issue directives..
If they fail to follow the instructions in the directive, we will initiate a criminal case against them. . Being government is intergovernmental relations, but we have to have meetings first and ensure support can be given to municipalities to improve their performance.”
