Is Zandvliet poisoning Capetonians?

A nearby community is convinced it is, but test results are inconclusive

A sign warns residents of Sandvlei not to come into contact with water coming from the Zandvliet treatment plant.

Are residents of a Cape Town neighbourhood being poisoned by one of the city’s main waste treatment plants? A Carte Blanche exposé in January said yes. Residents of Sandvlei were shown suffering with sores and tummy infections. Scientists too have warned that the plant is “in crisis, discharging sewage into the lower Kuils River and causing horrific health effects for the people who live along the river.” GroundUp investigated.

On Wednesday, Mayor Dan Plato met with the Sandvlei United Community Organization (SUCO). His office reported that “both sides have plotted the way forward amicably”. SUCO vice chairperson Maryam Salie echoed this optimism. The meeting is a breakthrough, following years of distrust and antagonism between the City and the community.

The Carte Blanche exposé accused the City of pumping “raw sewage” into the Kuils River upstream from Sandvlei. The accusation was made some weeks earlier by scientists in a Daily Maverick op-ed. This, Carte Blanche and the experts suggested, may be the cause of E. coli infections and other health problems, such as skin rashes in children, in the community.

GroundUp visited Sandvlei, a rural community in Macassar near Somerset West. We saw a steady stream of dark, murky waste water with floating clumps of foam flowing into the Kuils River upstream from the settlement. It was easy to access both the effluent stream and the Kuils River.

Horses grazed nearby and we heard accounts of children unwittingly playing in the mud and water. The City said it is not possible to fence off the river, but, it has put up a sign warning residents about the “potentially polluted” water.

Salie listed a bunch of health ailments she suspects may be caused by the polluted river: E. coli infections, skin rashes, boils, joint pains, migraines, pneumonia, diarrhoea and upset stomachs, tumours and an increased risk of cancer. SUCO dismisses suggestions that there is no scientific proof of the link between the treatment works and the community’s health.

Salie wants the river to be clean. “We want the Zandvliet plant to stop pumping sewage into it.”

Maryam Salie wants the river running through her neighbourhood to be cleaned.

But, a recent test complicates claims that effluent discharge by the Zandvliet plant is the cause of the Kuils River’s pollution. CSIR researcher Bettina Genthe, who conducted this test, was interviewed for the Carte Blanche segment. In her interview, she confirmed that the adjacent section of the Kuils River was contaminated with chemicals and high levels of E. coli.

But, Genthe said, her attempts to explain the complexity of making a definitive causal link between the treatment works’ effluent discharge, the poor water quality and the health problems in the community was not included in the Carte Blanche segment.

She tested samples taken on four occasions at different locations: from the Kuils River upstream of the treatment works, from the stream of effluent flowing from the treatment works, from the Kuils River at the Zandvlei community, and from further downstream.

The results show that the Kuils River, including the Sandvlei section of the river, is seriously polluted. The levels of nitrogen and phosphate, chemicals that feed the growth of algae and bacteria, in the effluent were high. But the results also show that the Zandvliet plant was not pumping untreated sewage into the river – at least not on the four occasions that the samples were taken – and that it was not the sole, nor perhaps even the primary contaminant of the Kuils River at the Sandvlei section. The results showed that the E. coli level (807.75 per 100 ml) was within the limit (1000 per 100 ml) set by the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs.

Dr Kevin Winter, a water quality expert at the University of Cape Town, looked at the CSIR results and agreed that the E. Coli level was “not alarming” and the treatment works were “doing a pretty good job” on the days that the samples were taken.

The results show that the poor quality of the river at Sandvlei were likely caused by a range of sources upstream from the treatment works. For example, the levels of E. coli in the water sample taken upstream were significantly higher than those in the effluent flowing from the treatment works.
“The results show us that the poor water quality of the river cannot be blamed on a single source. The effluent from Zandvliet is flowing into an already contaminated river,” Genthe said.

Other sources of contamination likely include industry, agriculture, informal settlements and suburban areas.

This is where the Kuils River (left) meets the outflow of the waste treatment plant (right).

But, the fact remains: the Kuils River flowing through the Sandvlei community is polluted and the community is suffering from health problems. Whether the health problems are caused by the river is unclear.

Proving causality, explains physician and infectious diseases specialist Dr Sean Wasserman, is complicated. First, you have to show there’s an outbreak of an infection; this means that the ailment is occurring more than expected.

Once an outbreak is confirmed, government investigators have to test a hypothesis about the cause of the infection. To do this, they must run what is called a case control study. This involves comparing an infected group with a similar group of uninfected people. By trying to find out what the infected group was more exposed to than the uninfected group, the investigators may be able to identify a cause of the infection.

Wasserman took issue with Carte Blanche quoting unqualified people who jumped to a conclusion about the cause of poor health outcomes in the Sandvlei community.

Carte Blanche executive producer Wynand Grobler told GroundUp that the program only reported the Sandvlei community’s claims that the pollution of the river was causing various infections. “At no point did we say that [cyanotoxins] is the cause [of the ailments] and that it is coming directly from the Zandvliet plant,” he said.

The CSIR results and the lack of proof do not exonerate the City or the Zandvliet plant. Xanthea Limberg, Mayoral Committee Member for Water and Waste Services, maintains that the “biological activated sludge processes” used at Zandvliet “are considered best practice for municipal wastewater treatment and the same treatment process is still implemented at new plants and plant upgrades the world over.”

But, experts, such as the ones who wrote the Daily Maverick article, believe the facility is overburdened. Put bluntly: it has too much shit to process.

Zandvliet is one of the city’s largest waste treatment plants.

The treatment works is long overdue for an upgrade. But a tender to upgrade the plant got delayed by a plethora of appeals. Fortunately, the deadlock has been broken, according to the City, and the R1 billion makeover is due to start within months.

Dr Jo Barnes, a retired University of Stellenbosch epidemiologist, told GroundUp that the “pong” of sewage from Zandvliet is proof enough that the plant is not functioning well.

She said that the E. coli count found by the CSIR is not always a reliable indicator. The plant’s chemical treatment may kill E. coli, but it is possible that other dangerous but difficult to test for pathogens in faeces remain.

Also, the results only show E. coli and chemical levels on the days that the samples were gathered. Large variations are possible. The scientists who wrote in the Daily Maverick said that in November Zandvliet “discharged millions of litres of what we observed to be raw, unfiltered sewage into the Kuils River” after storm water overwhelmed the plant.

Professor Leslie Petrik, one of the writers of that article, said that the regulations for effluent discharge are outdated. They do not deal with some contaminants found in pharmaceuticals, industrial chemicals and everyday household products. One of her recent studies for the Water Research Council showed that many of these compounds are found in marine life in False Bay. This shows a causal link between Zandvliet and chemical contamination in marine life.

“Water quality guidelines and effluent discharge limits need serious attention,” she said, adding that we can all do our part by shifting to biodegradable products in our homes.

© 2019 GroundUp.1 February 2019   Text by Daneel Knoetze. Photos by Ashraf Hendricks.

How a South African industrial site is providing a safe haven for wild cats

A serval captured on a camera trap at an industrial site in South Africa. Daan Loock

Ever since the industrial revolution, human activities have resulted in rapid environmental changes including degradation, fragmentation, and destruction of habitat, climate change and biodiversity loss. Animals, such as large carnivores, are often among the first to disappear as human disturbance increases.

The fact that human activities have had catastrophic consequences for some species is undisputed. But there are also instances where wildlife has befitted from human interventions, such as raccoons and coyotes that flourish in urban areas. This is because they can exploit resources like food and low levels of competition from other species that are less able to adapt.

We made a startling discovery that provides another example of wildlife thriving in an industrial site. We found that servals, a wild cat, were living in the shadow of a huge petrochemical plant in South Africa.

Using repeated camera trap surveys we found that serval were present – and thriving – at the Secunda Synfuels Operations plant 140 km east of Johannesburg. Constructed to help cope with the fuel embargo imposed on apartheid-era South Africa, the plant processes coal into a petroleum-like product. As part of this production process it emits 20 million tons of carbon dioxide per year. The plant, which covers an area of around 85 km², supports a serval population density - the number of animals in a given area - far greater than any other site on record across the entire range of the species.

The world’s largest coal liquefaction plant has some unusual neighbours: the densest population of elusive serval cats anywhere on the planet.

Over several years we also used live traps to capture and release servals at the plant, allowing us to identify their sex and age – something that was not possible using our camera traps. This showed us that the population structure appeared to be stable and normal. This suggests that the high density was not a temporary situation, but a long-term trend.

The cases of modified environments benefiting wildlife should not be taken as evidence that industrialisation is generally a good thing for wildlife. As humans modify natural habitats biodiversity tends to suffer, and it is of paramount importance that we curb our impact on the environment. But our findings suggest that even heavily industrialised sites can still have conservation value.

We should not overlook these areas when developing conservation plans as they can still play a role in protecting threatened species.

Why wildlife is thriving at an industrial site

We think that there are three main reasons why servals fared so well in this modified environment.

The petrochemical plant is surrounded by wetlands, which are home to a large number of rodents, the preferred prey of servals. This provides an ample prey base, which supports a large serval population.
Secondly, there is a fence surrounding the plant, for safety and security reasons. This protects serval living at the plant from persecution from humans. In other areas serval numbers can be controlled by persecution from farmers, who perceive servals to be a threat to their livestock.

Finally, while the fence is intended to restrict the movement of humans, it also stops other large carnivores from entering the area. This keeps competition low, allowing serval numbers to grow.

Silver linings of modified landscapes

Originally set aside as a diamond mine, Namibia’s Sperrgebiet exclusion zone is now a national park. Olga Ernst

Industrial installations often establish exclusion zones around their core infrastructure to improve security and safety. These can also benefit wildlife. Reserves were created around the Jwaneng diamond mine in Botswana and the Venetia diamond mine in South Africa, for example, which now support a broad array of large mammals such as elephants, African wild dogs, and cheetahs.

And some of these reserves set up to protect mines, such as the Sperrgebiet exclusion zone in Namibia, have now even been proclaimed national parks.

As well as protecting habitats, modified environments sometimes create entire novel ecosystems, that can sometimes increase local richness. Oil rigs, while being unsightly, can act as artificial reefs that offer protection from trawling and support diverse communities of marine life that would not otherwise exist in the area.

There is enough doom and gloom in conservation. Celebrating silver linings such as servals at Secunda will help us shift our focus from problems to solutions, as advocated by the Earth Optimism movement. This is key to moving from a sense of loss to a sense of hope in the dialogue about conservation and sustainability, which is critical for securing the public support, political will, and resources to stem the tide of biodiversity loss.




Sam Williams, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Zoology, University of Venda, Researcher at IGDORE, and Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Anthropology, Durham University and Lourens Swanepoel, Associate lecturer, University of Venda
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

Protesters threaten to empty toilets onto road

Msunduzi municipality doesn’t listen, say residents

Residents of Denmark location in Pietermaritzburg blocked roads on Tuesday complaining that the municipality had not emptied their toilets since last year. Photo: Nompendulo Ngubane

Pietermaritzburg protesters are angry that their pit toilets have not been emptied since last year. They have threatened to throw waste onto the road if their complaints are not heard by the Msunduzi municipality.

“We will take buckets full of waste and spill them onto the road so that they take us seriously,” said protester Jabulani Mazibuko as residents of Slangspruit, Denmark, in Pietermaritzburg blocked roads with trees and burning tyres on Tuesday afternoon.

The protesters are complaining that their toilets have not been emptied since last year. In nearby France location, in the same ward, residents are also complaining about blocked toilets. According to ward councillor Sibongile Mncwango there have been problems with payments to the drainage company contracted by the Msunduzi municipality.

Broken bottles thrown on the road on Tuesday stopped drivers from using the road leading to Imbali township. Police removed burning trees to allow the traffic to flow.

Residents of Denmark protested about the toilets in June 2017 and again early in 2018.
They are also complaining about electricity cuts which they say damage their appliances.

“Since November we have been requesting our ward councillor to assist us in emptying the toilets,” said Mazibuko. “Residents did not enjoy Christmas because of the smell and flies. We bought chemicals to lower the waste but the chemicals work for a short time.”

“We have had meetings with the municipality. They have promised to attend to the matter. Nothing has been done.”

Residents have protested several times about their toilets not being emptied by the municipality. Photo: Nompendulo Ngubane

Mazibuko said when electricity was restored after cuts, appliances were broken. “On Monday the guys from the municipality were fixing the transformer. They did not finish what they were doing. The transformer was left open on the road.”

Sandile Mseleku said his fridge was broken after electricity cuts last week. “Almost every resident here has appliances broken. We buy globes almost every week because globes burn. We are tired. Even when we visit the municipality offices we are labelled as a nuisance. They know we have problems but they don’t attend to them,” said Mseleku.

Ward councillor Mncwango said she had reported the electricity cuts to the municipality. She said trucks had been sent to Denmark to empty the toilets “but they broke”.

“I had explained that there has been a problem of funds from the municipality’s side because the trucks were outsourced,” said Mncwango. She said she had promised residents she would raise the matter at the full council.

We are awaiting comment from the municipality.

   By Nompendulo Ngubane

© 2019 GroundUp.

SGB shuts down school after dispute with principal

Learners want the school reopened

Parents protested outside Silver Leaf Primary in Dunoon against the school principal. Photo: Peter Luhanga

The School Governing Body of Silver Leaf Primary in Dunoon has shut down the school. Parents accuse the principal of being rude to them and want him removed. But some learners want the school reopened.

On Friday, about 80 parents protested outside the school. They disrupted lessons and ordered learners and teachers to go home. Their anger was mainly directed at the school principal, Mlungisi Fani.
Deputy chairperson of the School Governing Body Caroline Sikweyiya said parents were accusing Fani of failing to take their opinions seriously on the running of the school, and branding them “illiterates”.

The protest continued on Monday. The parents sang and danced to popular struggle songs and held placards saying, for example, “Fani must fall”.

Yandiswa Bika, who has two children at the school, claimed that the principal swore at parents and when they had issues to report to him he met them at the gate and slammed it against them.
“He calls us flies and says that children must be dropped at the entrance gate and that we are not allowed inside the school premises to see them off,” said Bika.

She said some parents with children who were short of items from the school stationery pack were turned back home on the first day of school. This apparently fuelled the anger for the Friday protest.
“He judges us,” she said.

The Western Cape Education Department has, however, said it has received complaints about financial misconduct by the SGB. It is unclear if this is what led to the conflict, and no details have yet been provided about the alleged misconduct.

Director of Communications at the Western Cape Education Department (WCED), Bronagh Hammond, on Friday described the actions of the protesting parents as “very unfortunate as it has affected the learners directly”.

“The principal has raised a number of concerns regarding the conduct of the SGB on certain matters … The SGB, unfortunately, reacted to the letter by shutting down the school. The Department has offered to meet the SGB on Monday,” said Hammond.

But on Monday Hammond said the parents had declined to come to the WCED offices. “This offer still stands.”

“The WCED has also received complaints regarding the financial misconduct of the SGB and will investigate. The refusal to allow for teaching and learning is not acceptable. Learners should not be the victims of the current dispute between the principal and the SGB,” said Hammond.

On Monday the school reopened for about half an hour. Learners, dressed in uniform and eager to learn, returned to school. They started pushing the gate demanding the security guards let them in. The gate was opened.

Teachers were let in at 9:30 am.

But the SGB and protesting parents vowed to not let the principal access the school.

Fani arrived at the school escorted by the Metro Police but was not allowed in.

The parents then cancelled lessons for the day and learners were seen coming out of the classrooms at 10:05 am.

Anele Pikelelo, 16, a Grade 7 learner at the school, said that his teacher told them to go home and did not explain further.

“We are not happy. We want to learn and get ready for high school,” said Pikelelo.

Some parents who got the news via social networks came to pick up their children. Children whose parents were at work were left in the care of the school caretaker.

The protesting parents also made sure that all the teachers had left the school premises.

The school, which has several hundred learners, was also in the news in 2016 when parents protested about the lack of space in Grade R.

© 2019 GroundUp.
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The ANC must offer more than promises to win over South Africans

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s party, the ANC, faces a tough set of elections in May.
EPA-EFE/Kim Ludbrook

Launching the governing African National Congress’s (ANC) 2019 general election manifesto in South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa lauded the successes of the last 25 years of democracy. He claimed that the governing party had “given substance to the promise of a better life for all”. He declared 2019 “the year of united action to grow South Africa”, with a focus on economic growth and job creation:

Today, we are issuing a call to all the people of South Africa, to join us as we strive to accelerate change in our country, as we strive to build an inclusive economy that creates jobs and as we work towards a better future for our children.

He also emphasised that the ANC’s aim was to create a developmental state which would put the people first, and that corruption and factional politics would not be tolerated.

He outlined the ANC’s political agenda. This included mobilising for a decisive victory in the 2019 general elections; intensifying the renewal of ANC branches; fighting corruption in government, in the ANC and across society; and organising against social ills such as gender-based violence, substance abuse and racism.

But the same golden promises have been made before. They may not have the same shine any more given that South Africa is at a precarious point in its 25th year of democracy. The country faces massive socio-economic and socio-political challenges. Unemployment remains stubbornly high, particularly among young people. Economic growth is tepid and protests over the government’s poor delivery of basic services are on the rise.

A survey by Afrobarometer –- a non-partisan African research network – shows that South Africans generally believe their current economic conditions are bad. Not surprisingly, most believe that the government is dealing with economic policy badly. More than 60% think the government’s performance isn’t satisfactory on this front.

More worrying is that South Africans are increasingly becoming disillusioned with democracy because of the government’s anorexic delivery on the promise of a better life for all. While the ANC continues to make this promise, its delivery remains elusive.

The next few months will be crucial. The ANC will need to take decisive action if it’s going to win over sceptical voters.

Echoes of past manifestos

A cursory glance at previous ANC election manifestos shows that very similar promises and plans have been made ahead of previous elections.

In 1999, at the launch of its manifesto, the party urged South Africans to vote for it in return for speedy change and the delivery of services, to ensure a better life for all.

The 2004 manifesto, under the banner of “a people’s contract to create work and fight poverty”, stressed growing the economy, creating sustainable livelihoods, accessing basic services, facilitating comprehensive social security as well as fighting crime and corruption.

Similar sentiments were expressed in the ANC’s 2009 general election manifesto. The overarching theme of this manifesto was “working together we can do more”. The party claimed that a

…. vote for the ANC is a vote for a better life.

Focus areas were the creation of decent work and sustainable livelihoods, education, health, rural development, food security and land reform as well as the fight against corruption and crime.

By 2014 the promise of a “better life for all” remained an elusive dream. Corruption, allegations of state capture, and predatory political factionalism undermined trust in the ANC’s abilities to deliver on its 2014 promises. As in 2009, economic growth and job creation, rural development and land reform, addressing apartheid legacies, fighting crime and corruption, and delivering quality health and education were key priorities.

Will the electorate buy those golden promises? It’s not clear that they will, given the decline in electoral support as well trust in the ruling party.

A time series by Afrobarometer shows both these trends very clearly.

Decline in electoral support and trust

The party’s electoral support has shrunk. In 1999 the ANC held an overwhelming majority of 66%. By the 2014 general elections, this fell to 61%.

The change of voter support in certain provinces is very marked. Electoral support for the ANC declined between 1999 and 2014 in some provinces. Most notable was the decline of electoral support in the Eastern Cape, its traditional stronghold.

In the Free State, the ANC held 81% of electoral support in 1999 but, by 2014, the party only secured 70% of the vote. Similar trends were evident in the North West, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and Gauteng provinces.

Trust in the ANC remains precarious. In 2002 a quarter of South Africans who took part in the Afrobarometer survey didn’t trust the governing party at all. By 2018, this sentiment increased to 36%.

Trust in the president also fell. In 1999 37% of South Africans indicated a measure of trust in the president. By 2018 only 30% said they trusted the president a little.

Crucial times ahead

There are similar themes of addressing economic growth for job creation, of increasing education and skills development, addressing unemployment, inequality and poverty, and working to create a better life for all in the ANC’s latest manifesto.

But the party will need to take decisive action on corruption as well as facilitate the necessary conditions for economic growth and job creation to restore some semblance of trust in its governing ability.

The next few months will be crucial. There are a few caveats that may undermine its electoral performance in 2019. These include addressing factionalism and corruption and ensuring accountability for those involved in state capture. The ANC also has to get public institutions functioning in a way that delivers basic services to the people.

If it fails to do any of this, the ANC may well suffer losses akin to the 2016 local government elections at a national level and reduce its electoral dominance of South Africa’s political landscape. Indeed, the key lesson from 2016 was that people are no longer buying promises with their vote.

Joleen Steyn Kotze, Senior Research Specialist in Democracy, Governance and Service Delivery at the Human Science Research Council and a Research Fellow Centre for African Studies, University of the Free State

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.