Judicial blow for eThekwini: High Court finds city failed to prevent river and beach pollution

The KwaZulu-Natal High Court has ruled that the eThekwini Municipality failed to manage sewage spills into the city’s beaches, violating multiple pieces of environmental legislation in the process.

The ruling was handed down earlier on Thursday in Pietermaritzburg. It follows a court challenge brought by the Democratic Alliance (DA), which accused the municipality of failing to maintain its water treatment works.

The party argued that this negligence resulted in large-scale sewage spills into Durban’s rivers and tributaries, which eventually flowed into the ocean.

In April 2022, KwaZulu-Natal was hit by devastating floods, with eThekwini experiencing the most significant damage. Much of the municipality’s infrastructure, including its wastewater treatment plants, was severely compromised as a result.

In court papers, the municipality maintained that it has done everything within its power and utilised its strained finances to manage the fallout from the floods.

However, in a unanimous judgment handed down by three High Court judges, it was found that the municipality repeatedly breached several sections of the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA).

The judgment highlighted several critical failures:

Non-compliance with Directives: The court listed at least seven directives issued by senior government departments that the municipality failed to comply with.

River Pollution: The city failed to prevent the pollution of the Umngeni River through ongoing sewage spills.

National Water Act Breaches: The municipality was found in breach of the National Water Act for failing to satisfactorily comply with a directive to resolve pollution emanating from its water works.