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Cape Town will have more than just Vaalies floating around its beautiful beaches this December holidays after Environment Minister Dion George ostensibly gave the City of Cape Town a blank cheque to pump an unlimited volume of untreated sewage out to sea.

This was revealed in George’s parliamentary response to a question posed by ActionSA MP Malebo Kobe about the Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment’s (DFFE) actions against the City of Cape Town for releasing more than 30 million litres of raw sewage into the marine reserve per day.

According to Groundup, Minister George said Cape Town had coastal waters discharge permits for three marine outfalls, situated in Green Point, Camps Bay and Hout Bay. The permits allow the City to discharge 25 million, 11.3 million, and 5 million litres of sewage into the sea per day from each of these outfalls respectively.

The only treatment the sewage receives before being released into the ocean. is to be pumped through a sieve to remove solids.

However, the public and a number of organisations, including the National Sea Rescue Institute, have called for the issuance of these discharge permits – which place restrictions on the amounts of sewage that can be pumped, as well as limits for components like nitrogen, mercury, and cyanide, among others.

“These three permits are all subject to ongoing appeals,” stated George. “However, an interim decision was taken on 28 August 2024, in which the effluent quantity (in other words, flow) limits in the CWDPs (Coastal Waters Discharge Permits) were suspended pending the outcome of the appeals.” He added that the City of Cape Town “is not limited to the daily discharge limits”.

However, the City had already been going beyond the sewage quantity restrictions imposed by the current permits.

Zahid Badroodien, a Mayco member for Water and Sanitation, stated that the average discharge in October exceeded the permission limit by 1.8 million litres per day, while Green Point exceeded the allowed limit by 700,000 litres per day. The discharge volume limit was however not exceeded by the Camps Bay outfall.