The Lekwa Local Municipality was fined R70m for failing to stop sewage from flowing into the Vaal River. The penalty is among the highest on record in SA for an environmental crime

A municipality in Mpumalanga has been fined R70-million and put on strict terms to plug the torrent of raw or semi-treated human sewage and factory muck that has been pouring into the Vaal River near Standerton for more than five years.

The fine, imposed last week on the Lekwa Local Municipality by the Standerton Regional Court, is among the highest on record in South Africa for an environmental crime and comes at a time when several other municipalities face similar criminal action for their failure to halt the regular fouling of rivers and dams nationwide.

The prosecution, investigated by Maanda Alidzulwi, a senior Green Scorpions environmental management inspector in Mpumalanga, comes in the wake of a waterborne cholera outbreak that has killed at least 45 people in several provinces.

Last year, Alidzulwi took the Thaba Chweu municipality to court for similar water pollution offences, securing a R10-million fine.

He was also a guest speaker at Daily Maverick's Gathering: Earth Edition last month, where he warned that pollution of the Vaal River was endangering the health of thousands of people because of the regular and "blatant" dumping of untreated human sewage into local rivers.

He remarked that...