HERMANUS – Following up on a news release by Afriforum, Overstrand Herald was still unable to determine exactly what is meant with the term Hermanus Landfill in Afriforum’s regular national audit of land fills. Two weeks ago the Herald reported that according to the audit there is a Hermanus Landfill site for which the Overstrand Municipality is responsible. This site scored 94 percent in the latest audit, which was an improvement on the 88 percent in 2021 and the 86 percent in 2022. In 2019 there was not an audit, but in 2017 and 2018 this landfill got fullmarks. The problem is that there is not a landfill in Hermanus that is managed by the Overstrand Municipality, but there is one in Gansbaai. The Karwyderskraal Landfill is managed by the Overberg District Municipality. The managers of the solid waste departments at the two local authorities were not able to clarify the issue and a message on an answering machine at Afriforum’s national office delivered no response. However, the Herald received a news release from Mr Johan Crous, Afriforum’s District Coordinator: Boland, about the landfill audit this week. Unfortunately, he is new in the position and was not involved in the audit. He undertook to contact the Overstrand Afriforum’s branch to help the Herald, but there was no response so far. In his release, Mr Crous reported that only 12 of the 25 landfill sites audited in the Western Cape complied with national standards. According to him the rest are in a terrible condition. This can mainly be attributed to a lack of will by the municipalities to adhere to the standards. Crous says that the most common problems that AfriForum encountered during the audit were the absence of waste management licenses and a total mismanagement of sites. A major part of the problem is that incompetent people are appointed to manage the sites and thus the necessary know- how is absent. He added that over the last two years, AfriForum had met on several occasions with Barbara Creecy, Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and Environmental Affairs, and her team. “From these meetings it was clear that there was insufficient communication between national, provincial and local authorities. This is proof that co-operative government and traditional affairs (Cogta) and the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environmental Affairs do not communicate with each other,” Mr Crous stated. Although Overstrand and the Overberg District Municipality are not amongst those municipalities who are not complying with national legislation, one would like clarity on the issue of what is meant with Hermanus Landfill and that there is closer co-operation with Afriforum to address problems that were identified in the audit.
