AfriForum audited 189 landfill sites nationwide to determine the current state of municipal and private landfills in South Africa. The annual audit determines whether landfill sites meet the necessary environmental, health and safety requirements for responsible waste management. However, the vast majority (85,8%) of landfill sites failed this year’s audit.
The situation in the Eastern Cape is similar to the rest of the country, as only two of the 10 landfills audited in the province met the minimum (80%) legal requirements for responsible waste management. The landfill site in Cradock met 90% of the audit requirements, while a landfill in East London, which is operated without a permit, met 84% of the audit requirements.
This is how the landfill sites in the Eastern Cape compare:
Deon de Jager, AfriForum’s Head of Community Structures for the Southern Region, says that although two landfill sites have performed well, the rest have failed to come to fruition. Two landfill sites could only meet 2% of the audit requirements. “A common problem that AfriForum noticed during this audit is that landfill sites are completely mismanaged. This is a major concern as the municipal officials involved are not being held to account by the provincial or national government.”
The situation in the province can be attributed to the municipalities’ serious shortcomings regarding their systems for waste management and the personnel responsible for these systems. Smaller municipalities especially suffer from mismanagement in this area. However, it appears that no real steps are being taken to address the shortcomings.
AfriForum is already planning a meeting with Dr. Dion George, Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DBFO), to share the landfill audit report’s findings with him and request a formal investigation against the Eastern Cape’s non-compliant municipalities. AfriForum is of the opinion that South Africans’ constitutional rights, such as the right to a clean and healthy environment, are being denied by the poor management of landfill sites, therefore the DBVO will urgently have to call municipalities to account.
AfriForum
afriforum.co.za
