A dam of sewage on the farm.

A Brits resident has been engaged in a legal battle with the Madibeng municipality for the past six years to get them to stop municipal sewage pollution on his property, and despite court orders and even a contempt of court charge, the municipality has failed to act.
The Pretoria High Court has ordered the municipality twice to stop the pollution and rehabilitate the resident’s property but the municipality has taken no action and repeatedly appealed the court orders.
The resident first took Madibeng to court in 2018 after the municipality failed to act on the Department of Environmental Affairs’ orders to address the pollution.
The Pretoria High Court ordered Madibeng to clear and prevent future sewerage discharges on the resident’s farm near Oukasie in Brits. No action was taken.
The municipality failed to comply with the court order, leading to the municipal manager being found in contempt of court in May 2019. In response, Madibeng municipality filed counter-applications to rescind the interdict and contempt orders.
Over the past six years, raw sewage from the township has continuously flooded the property.
The resident filed another application and in October 2023 the high court ordered that the municipality remove surface sewage on the resident’s premises and replace it with acceptable topsoil, and continue doing it weekly until infrastructure is constructed to eliminate sewage pollution on the property. The court ordered that the municipality allocate funds within 12 months to construct said infrastructure.
Besides the high court orders, Madibeng was also put on terms by the Department of Rural, Environment and Agriculture (READ) in 2017 and 2018. READ issued a notice to Madibeng that the sewage spillage is causing significant pollution to the environment and that it has the potential to cause significant harm to the environment and also the Oukasie community, requesting the department to investigate and if deemed necessary to proceed with steps against the municipality.
“To date, nothing has been done and rivers of sewage continue to pollute my land,” the resident said.
Kormorant requested the Madibeng Municipality this week to visit the site with relevant officials but received no response. Shortly after our request, a team visited the farm on Monday afternoon, the resident said. “The Municipality acknowledges the court order and has intensified weekly pipeline monitoring, including visual inspections and jetting of the sewer line to remove stones and foreign objects,” municipal spokesperson Tumelo Tshabalala said on Wednesday. “For a long-term solution, we are moving forward with the Oukasie Outfall Sewer project, now in the awarding phase, to change the old infrastructure.” The case has been escalated to the Department of Water and Sanitation and the Department of Economic Development, Environment Conservation, and Tourism (DEDECT).