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On Friday 21 April 2023, ActionSA filed its provisional replying affidavit to the eThekwini High Court in the matter where ActionSA has taken legal action against eThekwini Metro Municipality and various government departments, for failing to fix the sewer infrastructure in eThekwini, which has caused the spewing of raw sewerage into rivers and the ocean for the past few years, resulting in high E.coli levels.

Unfortunately, due to the absence of the promised action plan from the Municipality on how they will fix rundown infrastructure, ActionSA’s Head of Strategic Litigation, Advocate Gillian Benson, was unable to file a complete replying affidavit in the eThekwini High Court. This will be done once the long-requested action plan has been received.

On 16 October 2022, ActionSA issued a letter of demand to the respondents to furnish an immediate action plan, which was expected to detail how the City intends to resolve the sewerage crisis in eThekwini.

However, despite the letter of demand by ActionSA and public outcry, the ANC-led coalition municipality and Ministers have failed to address the issue of sewerage running unabated through residential areas and contaminating river systems and ocean, posing a threat to the health of residents and visitors in eThekwini. 

After the failure of a mediation meeting between ourselves and representatives of the respondents, which took place in the 29 March 2023, we were advised by the Municipality that an action plan would be made available to us forthwith, but that was not the case, and it is bewildering that eThekwini is no closer to providing viable solutions and an action plan on how they intend on arresting the flow of sewerage. 

Interestingly, through previous engagements with the respondents, we were advised that the Municipality has a clear plan of action on how they will begin rebuilding eThekwini and its rundown infrastructure, but lacked the capital to begin repairs. However, and now that the Municipality has been allocated a sum of R1,5 billion to begin rebuilding the City, the City suddenly does not have a concrete plan of action. 

The information that the Municipality provided to us is accordingly contradictory. Be that as it may, we have filed a provisional replying affidavit to the Court while we await the action plan from the eThekwini Municipality, which will supposedly be prepared in conjunction with the fourth respondent, which is the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs. Thereafter, we will file a comprehensive response to all of the contradictory information provided by the various respondents. 

It is baffling that the respondent would rather incur legal costs - at the expense of tax payers - instead of providing an action plan as per our in initial request in October 2022, and avoid spending money that could have been redirected towards bringing service delivery to the people of eThekwini.

It is abominable that parties must continuously seek assistance from the Courts to compel members of the Executive to perform within their constitutional obligations. 

Issued by ActionSA KZN Provincial Chairperson Zwakele Mncwango