AfriForum warns of ticking time bomb as Gauteng landfills fill up fast

AfriForum has warned that “Day Zero” for landfills in Gauteng’s three metros will be reached in just over four years.

The organisation said this was the time the Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni metros had before their landfills — where the waste of 13-million residents is now dumped — reaches their maximum capacity.

AfriForum warned that unless there was immediate and decisive intervention, a full-scale environmental and public health disaster awaits the province. The organisation relied on the latest available data in March and April this year on the 13 active municipal landfills in the three metros. It said the landfills in the three metros will reach capacity in about 16, 78 and 60 months, respectively.

According to the Johannesburg municipality's “state of waste management” report released in March, the metro’s four landfill sites will reach capacity in just over a year.

“The metro itself says the Robinson Deep site will reach capacity in November 2026, the Goudkoppies site in March 2028 and the Ennerdale site in July 2026, while the Marie-Louise site would already have been at capacity by April this year,” AfriForum said.

According to the Tshwane municipality's submission to the portfolio committee on human settlements in April, the expectation was that the airspace at the metro’s four landfill sites (Ga-Rankuwa, Soshanguve, Heatherley and Bronkhorstspruit) would, in a worst-case scenario, be exhausted within the next three, seven, seven and nine years, respectively.

AfriForum said Ekurhuleni municipality's waste management presentation from March showed that its five municipal landfill sites were also expected to reach capacity in the next five years.

According to the metro’s own data, the Simmer & Jack and Weltevreden sites both have less than a year left, while the Rietfontein site will be operational for about three more years. However, the Rooikraal and Platkop sites have about eight and 12 years’ capacity left, respectively.

AfriForum urged that drastic steps be taken to provide solutions and the prioritisation of public-private partnerships for the construction of recycling centres.

Lambert de Klerk, head of environmental affairs at AfriForum, said the figures regarding the critical shortage of airspace at landfills pointed to serious systemic management failures in the province.

He said the suspension of approvals for developing new landfills, caused by delays in granting necessary licences, along with the failure of metros to invest in recycling and alternative waste processing technologies, were among the biggest contributing factors to the waste problem.

TimesLIVE