Note editors: Please find the attached English soundbite by Jade Miller MPL.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) calls for urgent intervention from the Gauteng MEC of Environment, Ewan Botha, to ensure proper management of the Fochville Waste Transfer Station in Merafong. The site’s current condition poses a significant environmental and public health risk to surrounding communities. Residents have also raised concerns about recurring fires at the facility, with burning waste producing smoke that affects nearby neighbourhoods for days at a time.
The Fochville Waste Transfer Station has now become an uncontrolled dumping site rather than a properly managed waste transfer station. Instead of serving as a facility where waste is temporarily received before being sorted, recycled, or transported for final disposal, the site is strewn with every imaginable type of waste. This includes household refuse, builders’ rubble, green waste and even animal carcasses. There is no effective access control, allowing members of the public to enter the facility freely to dump waste.
The deteriorating condition of the facility has been repeatedly reported by the local DA Councillor, Almè Rowles Zwart, who requested the assistance of DA Gauteng in escalating the matter. During a recent oversight inspection conducted by DA Gauteng, these concerns were confirmed.
It is worrying that the Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG) continues to pursue the establishment of additional waste transfer stations while existing facilities are being allowed to deteriorate into environmental hazards. Before new facilities are considered, the relevant authorities must demonstrate that they are capable of properly managing and overseeing those already in operation.
The DA Gauteng calls on MEC Botha to urgently intervene to ensure that existing waste transfer stations are properly managed before additional facilities are established. The health of residents cannot continue to be put at risk while the provincial government’s solution is to establish more waste transfer stations.
The DA has submitted a comprehensive set of questions to the Gauteng Department of Environment. The questions seek clarity on whether the facility is operating with the necessary environmental authorisations, what oversight inspections the department has conducted, whether any environmental non-compliance has been identified, what enforcement action has been taken, and what immediate interventions will be implemented to restore proper management of the site.
The DA will continue to hold both the municipality and the provincial government accountable until meaningful action is taken to restore the Fochville Waste Transfer Station and ensure that it operates in accordance with the standards expected of such a facility.