Note to Editors: Please note Hannah Lidgett, MPL sound bite in English
The DA KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) will intensify pressure on the province’s Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (EDTEA) department and the National Prosecuting Agency (NPA) to fast-track criminal prosecutions and ensure daily water quality testing at all Durban beaches.
This follows the ongoing environmental and economic fallout caused by the city’s beach sewage crisis along with the lack of meaningful accountability more than two years after criminal charges were laid against eThekwini Municipality and its officials.
Responding to questions from the DA during a recent EDTEA portfolio committee, departmental officials confirmed that EDTEA have opened three criminal cases against the municipality and senior officials under the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA).
Yet, to date, not a single official has been held accountable. All that has followed is bureaucratic buck-passing.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) first requested that EDTEA prove the crisis is not linked to the April 2022 floods – and later demanded an engineering report outlining how the city’s sewage pump stations compare to national standards. Meanwhile, beaches continue to close, and Durban’s reputation as a holiday destination suffers irrevocable damage.
As of 7 April, Laguna Beach, Doonside and Winkelspruit were closed due to dangerous E. coli levels. Ten days later, independent testing by Durban University of Technology confirmed alarmingly high E. coli levels at Blue Lagoon, Virginia, Bronze, Addington and Westbrook.
These are not isolated incidents. They are symptoms of systemic ongoing failure.
The DA has repeatedly warned that weekly water testing is insufficient given that it does not reflect real-time conditions and places public health and livelihoods at risk. DA councillors at local government level have also called for daily water testing and an urgent city-wide intervention, which have been ignored.
The DA will not allow this crisis to be swept under the rug. We will continue to:
• Demand daily water testing across all Durban beaches
• Push EDTEA and the NPA to expedite and conclude criminal proceedings and;
• Request full transparency on engineering reports and station audits.
Durban’s beaches are not just a tourism asset – they are at the heart of the city’s economy. The ongoing sewage crisis, coupled with a shocking lack of consequences, is a betrayal of the people of eThekwini and every job tied to its coastline.