Who and what is AfriForum?

AfriForum is an Afrikaans civil rights organisation that protects the rights of minority groups at national as well as provincial level, and anyone who can identify with AfriForum’s principles and objectives may join the organisation. AfriForum’s community plan focuses on mobilising communities to thus take control of their own streets and neighbourhoods again. AfriForum ensures that your constitutional and civil rights are recognised and protected at national level.

Wie en wat is AfriForum?

AfriForum is ’n Afrikaanse burgerregteorganisasie wat die regte van minderheidsgroepe op sowel nasionale as provinsiale vlak beskerm, en enigiemand wat met AfriForum se beginsels en doelstellings kan identifiseer, mag by die organisasie aansluit. AfriForum se gemeenskapsplan fokus daarop om gemeenskappe te mobiliseer om só weer beheer terug te neem oor hul eie strate en woonbuurtes. AfriForum verseker dat jou grondwetlike én burgerregte op nasionale vlak erken en beskerm word.

Seventh consecutive year that no Free State landfills pass the AfriForum audit

AfriForum audited 189 landfill sites nationwide to determine the current state of municipal and private landfills in South Africa and this year the Free State fared the worst out of all the provinces. For the seventh consecutive year, no landfill sites in the Free State passed the audit. This province, together with the Northern Cape, is the worst performing provinces in the country.

The annual audit determines whether landfill sites meet the necessary environmental, health and safety requirements for responsible waste management. To pass the audit, a landfill site must have met at least 80% of the audit requirements. However, the vast majority (85,8%) of landfill sites failed this year’s audit. A total of 28 landfill sites were visited, of which 27 were formally audited and one site, namely Steynsrus, was too unsafe for the audit process. Out of the 27 landfill sites that were audited, 15 met 10% or less of the audit requirements.

This is how the landfill sites in The Free State compare:

The situation in the province can be attributed to the municipalities’ serious shortcomings regarding their systems for waste management and the personnel responsible for these systems. Smaller municipalities especially suffer from mismanagement in this area. However, it appears that no real steps are being taken to address the shortcomings.

According to Alta Pretorius, Christa Ikking and Christo Groenewald, AfriForum’s District Coordinators for the Free State, it’s clear that most landfill sites in the Free State suffer from mismanagement, which means that most of the sites are in a terrible state. “A common problem that AfriForum noticed during the audit is that there is no control over the management of landfill sites. This is a major cause of concern as the municipal officials involved are not being held to account by the provincial or national government for this mismanagement.”

AfriForum is already planning a meeting with Dr. Dion George, Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DBFO), to share the landfill audit report’s findings with him and request a formal investigation against the Free State’s non-compliant municipalities. AfriForum is of the opinion that South Africans’ constitutional rights, such as the right to a clean and healthy environment, are being denied by the poor management of landfill sites, therefore the DBVO will urgently have to call municipalities to account.