By Emmanuel Koro

Johannesburg, 17 February 2025

The residents of a small Gauteng town, Hekpoort, mainly business owners in tourism and agriculture, are urging the Gauteng Department of Human Settlements (GDHS) to discontinue the Dr. Sefularo Reconstruction Development Plan (RDP) housing project due to environmental concerns.

However, after listening to the heated debate between local business people who sought a court order to demolish the Hekpoort Dr. Sefularo RDP housing project and officials from the Mogale City Local Municipality who opposed the demolition, the Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Gauteng Department of Environment (GDEnv), Ms. Shyla Peters, has called for a solution that would allow the housing project to move forward while also ensuring environmental protection.

She reiterated that  the GDEvn is committed to ensuring environmental conservation.

Concerns arose about sewage waste being discharged directly into the Magalies River, which local people and livestock rely on for drinking water, including irrigating crops.

However, these worries were removed during last week’s briefing on the Dr Sefularo RDP housing project, when the project’s environmental control officer, Mr. Lutendo Ndou, explained that a package system is being used for water treatment.

“This is a water treatment package, not merely a treatment works system,” he said, stressing that the package system retains the sewage.

Ndou assured participants at the project briefing meeting that only harmless treated water would be released into the river at a designated discharge point, which was shown to MEC Peters, GDEnv compliance senior managers and officers and representatives of the concerned local residents.

Nevertheless, the residents stressed the importance of regular inspections by the site engineer, Mogale City Local Municipality and other relevant authorities, to ensure the treated water meets acceptable standards.

Funded by the GDS and being implemented by the Mogale City Municipality, the project target is to construct 270 houses to benefit homeless residents, whom a representative of Mogale City said ‘worked at local farms but were later evicted.’

The first phase includes building 90 houses, of which about 30 are at roof level, with one completed.

Meanwhile, the Hekpoort business people, led by a long-time farmer, plan to file a high court order to stop the construction of the RDP houses.

The project briefing meeting followed the Gauteng Provincial Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee for Agriculture, Environment and Land Affairs, Hon. Jaco Mulder’s invitation to  MEC Shyla Peters  for an oversight visit to the project.

At the project briefing meeting, MEC Peters was accompanied by the GDEnv senior environmental managers and environmental compliance inspectors.

The GDEnv environmental management inspectors checked the project for compliance with the environmental impact assessment (EIA) and confirmed that the Dr Sefularo RDP housing construction project’s EIA “is valid and the contracted builder is adhering to specified requirements.”

The Hekpoort businesspeople have been leading the protest against  the Dr Sefularo  RDP housing project for some time.

On 11 December 2023, a complaint was filed with the GDEnv regarding a new sewer-treatment facility, which allegedly risks contaminating the adjacent Magalies River relied upon for drinking and irrigation water.

However,  at the time of  inspection   no violations were found by the GDEnv officials.

About the writer: Emmanuel Koro is a Johannesburg-based international award-winning environmental journalist who writes independently on environmental and developmental issues in Africa.