The Grahamstown High Court yesterday ordered Ndlambe municipality to immediately clean up its illegal Marselle dumpsite and report to the court on plans to decommission the site and find a replacement.
In a far-reaching judgment, Judge Murray Lowe also found Ndlambe municipal manager Rolly Dumezweni guilty of contempt of court. This was for ignoring for more than four years a 2009 court order to deal wtih the municipality’s sewerage system, which has resulted in many raw sewage spills into the once-pristine Bushman’s River estuary.
It had eventually done so in 2014, but had been in contempt of the order for some years before that.
Lowe issued Dumezweni – who is also an advocate of the high court – with a warning.
Kenton-on-Sea Ratepayers’ Association, along with the Bushman’s Kariega Estuary Care Management Forum and the Natures Landing Homeowners’ Association, in 2014 resorted to court to force the Ndlambe Municipality to clean up its sewage and solid waste mess.
Lowe described the case as a sad tale of frustration and anxiety on the part of the residents of Kenton-on-Sea and Bushman’s River.
The illegal and over-full dumpsite had been mismanaged, was largely unfenced, and burned constantly, polluting the area.
The site – which services Kenton-on-Sea, Bushman’s River Mouth, and Bushman’s industrial townships as well as Ekhupumleni, Marselle, Klipfontein, Riversbend, Merry Hill, Nature’s Landing and New Rest – has never been legally licensed and should have been decommissioned five years ago.
Lowe said the municipality had consistently failed to seriously identify an alternative site despite the fact it knew from 2007 that it was required to do so by 2011.
“This is, to say the least, astonishing, and is again a clear indication that has been less than diligent in its attention to the difficulties which have been apparent for many years in respect of the dumpsite.
“It seems once again that no vigour, to put it mildly, has been exerted to secure an alternative site or to deal adequately with a problem that was clearly foreseeable and warned against many years ago, and which caused and continues to cause considerable risk, discomfort, nuisance and frustration to the surrounding residents.”
Lowe declared that the municipality had breached its constitutional and statutory obligations in respect of refuse removal, refuse dumps and solid waste disposal at the Marselle dumpsite.
The judgment was in the form of a structural interdict, which means Ndlambe municipality will have to regularly report to the court on progress made towards implementing its orders.
Lowe ordered the municipality to immediately take steps to put out all fires at the dumpsite and to take steps to prevent burning of any rubbish there in future.
He also ordered it to collect and clean up all rubbish strewn within a 1.5km radius of the dumpsite and to implement steps to retain the rubbish within the confines of the site in future.
It had to report to the court on July14 on steps it was taking to decommission the old site and commission a new one, as well as on the steps it was taking to heed his other orders.
Neither Dumezweni nor Ndlambe mayor Sipho Tandani could be reached for comment.
Municipal spokesman Khulekile Mbolekwa’s cellphone was also switched off.
Court nails Ndlambe to a cleanup programme
In a far-reaching judgment, Judge Murray Lowe also found Ndlambe municipal manager Rolly Dumezweni guilty of contempt of court. This was for ignoring for more than four years a 2009 court order to deal wtih the municipality’s sewerage system, which has resulted in many raw sewage spills into the once-pristine Bushman’s River estuary.
It had eventually done so in 2014, but had been in contempt of the order for some years before that.
Lowe issued Dumezweni – who is also an advocate of the high court – with a warning.
Kenton-on-Sea Ratepayers’ Association, along with the Bushman’s Kariega Estuary Care Management Forum and the Natures Landing Homeowners’ Association, in 2014 resorted to court to force the Ndlambe Municipality to clean up its sewage and solid waste mess.
Lowe described the case as a sad tale of frustration and anxiety on the part of the residents of Kenton-on-Sea and Bushman’s River.
The illegal and over-full dumpsite had been mismanaged, was largely unfenced, and burned constantly, polluting the area.
The site – which services Kenton-on-Sea, Bushman’s River Mouth, and Bushman’s industrial townships as well as Ekhupumleni, Marselle, Klipfontein, Riversbend, Merry Hill, Nature’s Landing and New Rest – has never been legally licensed and should have been decommissioned five years ago.
Lowe said the municipality had consistently failed to seriously identify an alternative site despite the fact it knew from 2007 that it was required to do so by 2011.
“This is, to say the least, astonishing, and is again a clear indication that has been less than diligent in its attention to the difficulties which have been apparent for many years in respect of the dumpsite.
“It seems once again that no vigour, to put it mildly, has been exerted to secure an alternative site or to deal adequately with a problem that was clearly foreseeable and warned against many years ago, and which caused and continues to cause considerable risk, discomfort, nuisance and frustration to the surrounding residents.”
Lowe declared that the municipality had breached its constitutional and statutory obligations in respect of refuse removal, refuse dumps and solid waste disposal at the Marselle dumpsite.
The judgment was in the form of a structural interdict, which means Ndlambe municipality will have to regularly report to the court on progress made towards implementing its orders.
Lowe ordered the municipality to immediately take steps to put out all fires at the dumpsite and to take steps to prevent burning of any rubbish there in future.
He also ordered it to collect and clean up all rubbish strewn within a 1.5km radius of the dumpsite and to implement steps to retain the rubbish within the confines of the site in future.
It had to report to the court on July14 on steps it was taking to decommission the old site and commission a new one, as well as on the steps it was taking to heed his other orders.
Neither Dumezweni nor Ndlambe mayor Sipho Tandani could be reached for comment.
Municipal spokesman Khulekile Mbolekwa’s cellphone was also switched off.
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