Despite high court orders, a contempt of court order and an application for a warrant of arrest of municipal managers, Madibeng Municipality continues to spill sewage onto a resident’s land without adhering to any of the orders.

Sewage dam a few metres from the house.

Stephen Madiro, a single father of two, who owns a farm near Oukasie township in Brits, has been living in raw sewage for the past seven years. “Sometimes it is so bad that we have to walk through puddles of sewage to get out of the house. I had to stop farming activities, and now my borehole is being polluted,” Madiro said.
After complaints and beseeching the municipality to stop polluting his land with sewage, Madiro had to turn to the court to assist. However, despite the Pretoria High Court ordering the municipality twice to stop the pollution and rehabilitate the resident’s property, Madibeng took no action and repeatedly appealed the court orders.
Madiro 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. 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, the Madibeng Municipality filed counter-applications to rescind the interdict and contempt orders. Over the past seven years, raw sewage from the township has continuously flooded the property.
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.
The High Court again dismissed Madibeng’s application to appeal the court orders in July, and shortly thereafter, Madibeng removed the appeal from the court roll, offering to pay Madiro’s wasted costs.
However, no action has been taken.
“My drinking water is now also being polluted. I have rivers and dams of sewage on my property. It is unbearable,” Madiro said.
Madibeng did not respond to Kormorant’s enquiry. The matter has been referred to the Department of Water and Sanitation, and Kormorant is waiting for their response.