AfriForum will audit landfill sites in Govan Mbeki Municipality again
Organisation will visit landfill sites in February.
AfriForum recently delivered an invitation to a landfill site audit at the Govan Mbeki Municipality’s mayoral.
AfriForum does an audit report yearly about the state of the landfill sites in Secunda, Kinross, Leandra, Bethal and Evander.
This organisation will visit the landfill sites in these towns from February 22 to 24 and request the municipal officials to accompany them.
Jan du Plessis, chairperson of AfriForum’s Secunda branch said they represent the interests of the community in the Govan Mbeki municipal region.
“On behalf of the community we represent, we are obliged to carry out the audit yearly,” said Du Plessis.
“We have a standard set of points we use to conduct a fair comparison of all landfill sites across South Africa.”
The invitation addressed to Mayor Nhlakanipho Zuma stated that the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa enshrines everyone’s right to an environment that is not harmful to their health and well-being.
It further stated that in terms of Schedule 5 of the constitution, local municipalities are responsible for refuse removal, refuse dumps and solid waste disposal in the communities they serve.
The relevant authorities need to comply with the legislation on waste management.
The National Environmental Management: Waste Act, 2008 (Act No. 59 of 2008) is pre-eminent legislation dealing with waste management and was promulgated to give effect to the constitutional right to an environment not harmful to one’s health and well-being.
The act places various obligations on municipalities authorised to carry out waste management services such as waste removal, waste storage and waste disposal.
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Section 16 (1) of the Waste Act requires that municipalities as the holders of waste at landfill sites operated by them must take reasonable measures to avoid the generation of waste.
Where such generation cannot be avoided, they have to minimise the toxicity and amounts of waste that are generated, reduce, re-use, recycle and recover waste.
The municipality has to ensure that the waste that must be disposed of is treated and disposed of in an environmentally sound manner.
It has to manage the waste in such a manner that it does not endanger the health or the environment or cause a nuisance through noise, odour or visual impacts, prevent an employee or any person under supervision from contravening this act and prevent the waste from being used for an unauthorised purpose.
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According to Section 21 of the Waste Act, municipalities who store waste at their landfill sites must take steps to ensure that the waste cannot be blown away, that nuisances such as odour, visual impacts and breeding of vermin do not arise and that pollution of the environment and harm to health is prevented.
Section 26 of the Waste Act further states that municipalities may not dispose of waste, or knowingly or negligently cause or permit waste to be disposed of in or on any land, water body or at any facility unless the disposal of that waste is authorised by law.
Municipalities may also not dispose of waste in a manner that is likely to cause pollution of the environment or harmful to health and well-being. Local authorities can be held criminally liable for actions that affect human health or cause pollution.
Local authorities can also be held civilly liable in matters related to the operation, closure and rehabilitation of dumps and the remediation of contaminated land for urban development.
