Landfill audit: KwaZulu-Natal

The civil rights organisation AfriForum audited 161 landfills nationwide this year as part of their national project to determine the condition of landfills in South Africa.

Only 1 out of the 10 landfill sites audited in KwaZulu-Natal met the national standards. Under applicable legislation and regulations, including the National Environmental Management Act: Waste 59 of 2008, landfills must meet specific requirements.

This is how the landfills in KwaZulu-Natal compare:

According to Eugene van Aswegen, AfriForum’s Provincial Coordinator for KwaZulu-Natal, most landfills in KwaZulu-Natal are in a terrible state. “This can mainly be attributed to landfills being increasingly badly managed due to a restricted budget.”

“The most common problem that AfriForum branches in KwaZulu-Natal noticed during this audit is that the officials responsible for service delivery do not see the maintenance of landfills as a necessity. This is a major concern as the municipal officials are obliged to ensure that landfills are a safe environment in terms of our constitution, and they are not being held accountable,” says Van Aswegen.

Municipal decay is the order of the day and smaller municipalities, in particular, suffer from large-scale mismanagement.

This situation can be attributed to the Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment (DFFE) being controlled by three different spheres of government. The national department only has the power to establish laws, policies, norms, and standards at the national level, but they have no power at the provincial or municipal level. The province reports to the provincial MEC, not to the minister. Cooperative Government and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) and the DFFE do not communicate with each other and therefore bring another challenge.

Click here and read the full report.