ESG Enforcement Tracker

Key facts:

The DWS has welcomed a judgment of the Mpumalanga Division of the High Court that found Emalahleni Local Municipality guilty of offences under the National Environmental Management Act and the National Water Act 36 of 1998. The municipality pleaded guilty after repeatedly failing to comply with directives intended to prevent sewage spillages into water resources and the surrounding environment.

It was alleged that between March 2019 and March 2025, the municipality repeatedly allowed untreated sewage to overflow, contaminating the Witbank Dam, the Naawpoort River, Steenkoolspruit, the Klein Olifants, and ultimately the Olifants River.

The municipality was fined R650 million. Of this amount, R150 million has been suspended for five years on condition that no further pollution offences are committed during that period. The remaining R500 million will be used to rehabilitate and upgrade several wastewater treatment works and sewer pump stations across the municipality. The municipality has to submit technical and environmental reports by March 2026 and complete repairs by April 2031.

The department stated that the size of the fine reflects the scale of the infrastructure failures. It has urged communities to support the remediation effort by avoiding the disposal of foreign objects into sewer lines and by helping to protect water and sanitation infrastructure from vandalism, which has contributed to system failures and sewage spillages.