Note to editors: Please find attached English and Afrikaans soundbite by Leanne De Jager MPL.
The Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site in Mogale City is grappling with a sewage crisis linked to the recurring breakdown of the Percy Stewart Wastewater Treatment Plant. Beyond the environmental damage, the crisis is also harming tourism, local livelihoods, and South Africa’s responsibility as custodian of this world heritage site. Meanwhile, the area’s natural and scientific value, which attracted visitors and researchers, is being eroded by Mogale City’s failure to manage and maintain essential infrastructure.
The DA calls on the MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Jacob Mamabolo, to act immediately to enforce compliance by Mogale City and ensure the Percy Stewart Wastewater Treatment Plant is fully and permanently repaired. The DA will also table questions to establish how long the plant has been discharging sewage, what steps Mogale City has taken to address the failure, and what deadlines have been set for full remediation.
This is deeply concerning, as Gauteng’s heritage sites are key drivers of economic growth. It is hard to see how the national goal of leveraging heritage for social and economic benefit can succeed while a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) World Heritage Site deteriorates under sewage pollution.
For nearly two decades, untreated and partially treated sewage has flowed from the plant into the Blougatspruit and Bloubankspruit, eventually reaching the Crocodile River and Hartbeespoort Dam, leaving parts of the river system classified as biologically dead by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
Multiple oversight inspections by the Democratic Alliance (DA) have revealed that this pollution is now threatening both the surface ecosystem and the fragile underground cave systems that make the Cradle globally significant. These dolomitic formations, which preserve some of the world’s most important human evolutionary fossils and artefacts, are increasingly at risk from contaminated groundwater and chemical instability caused by sewage infiltration.
See the photos here, here and here.
The DA is the only party with the will and capacity to fix Gauteng’s collapsing infrastructure and make the management of heritage sites non-negotiable. We will invest in sustainable infrastructure, secure dedicated funding streams, and work with heritage experts and local communities to restore the Cradle of Humankind to full UNESCO standards for preservation, research, and tourism.