Note to editors: Please find English and Afrikaans soundbites by Leanne De Jager MPL.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) Gauteng demands that MEC for Environment, Ewan Botha exercise provincial oversight over Mogale City’s environmental compliance failures, resulting in an ongoing sewage pollution crisis that threatens the Blougatspruit, Bloubankspruit, and ultimately the Crocodile River and the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site.
This follows the recent oversight inspection by the Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation, Sello Seitlholo, of the Percy Stewart plant in Mogale City and engagement with the executive mayors of Mogale City, Rand West City and Merafong on the issue of sewage pollution and the 2025 Green Drop Report.
The 2025 Green Drop Report revealed that Mogale City’s Green Drop score has collapsed from 75% in 2013 to below 30% in 2025, the single largest regression of any municipality in Gauteng. All three of the municipality’s wastewater treatment works are rated critical: Percy Stewart at 30% (down from 68% in 2021), Flip Human at 30% (down from 64%), and Magaliesburg at 27% (down from 49%). The municipality received a 0% rating for both microbiological and chemical compliance.
We note the Deputy Minister’s finding that while some operational improvements are visible, treated effluent quality still does not meet national standards, and that refurbishment of non-operational pump stations remains critically outstanding.
While we acknowledge the operational improvements at the Percy Stewart Wastewater Treatment Works, the DA is clear: measured optimism cannot substitute for measurable outcomes. The situation in Mogale City remains a crisis by any objective standard. We also note the deadline set for Mogale City to complete effluent-dosing measures to remove E. coli from treated wastewater in the coming months.
These deadlines must be enforced. The DA will closely monitor compliance and will hold Mogale City, MEC Botha and the Department of Water and Sanitation accountable when deadlines are not met. Commitments by executive mayors to improve effluent quality have been heard before. What residents, downstream water users and the Cradle of Humankind need are results.
For Gauteng, the Green Drop data is a direct warning. The City of Johannesburg and the City of Tshwane both have critical wastewater systems. Mogale City is the worst case in Gauteng, and the trajectory of neglect there shows exactly what happens when municipalities are allowed to decline without consequence.
Of the 14 in sewage pump stations in Mogale City, 12 are non-functional. As a result, much of Mogale’s sewage never reaches a treatment works at all. Of what does reach the treatment works, approximately six million litres of untreated or inadequately treated effluent are discharged back into the environment every single day. E. coli counts in affected rivers exceed extremely high-risk thresholds. The Department of Water and Sanitation has already referred a criminal case to the National Prosecuting Authority and issued a final administrative warning.
This is not a municipality trending in the right direction; it is a municipality in a state of sustained environmental and public health emergency. We will continue to liaise with MEC Botha to ensure that Mogale City immediately prioritise the repair of its 12 non-functioning pump stations.
The DA is the only party committed to fighting environmental pollution. A DA-led Gauteng provincial government would have long intervened to enforce environmental compliance on Mogale City.
The Cradle of Humankind is a site of global significance, and communities living and farming along the rivers deserve to live and work in an environment free from harmful bacteria.