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The Department of Environmental Affairs' Environmental Management
Inspectors (Green Scorpions) will leave no stone unturned in ensuring
that those found flouting environmental laws of this country face the
full wrath of the law.

This follows search warrants that were executed simultaneously in
Gauteng, Free State, and KwaZulu-Natal on the premises of Wasteman
Group- a company responsible for managing and disposing of waste -
revealed serious contraventions of a number of provisions of the
National Environmental Management: Waste Act.

This blitz comes just days after the release of the National Compliance
and Enforcement Report (NCER) 2008/09 revealed that during the 2008/09
reporting year a total of 2 412 environmental criminal dockets were
registered compared with 1 762 in 2007/08. The report reflected the
work of all environmental compliance and enforcement officials operating
at a national and provincial level, with certain sections focusing
particularly on the Environmental Management Inspectorate (Green
Scorpions).

The searches included Wasteman's head office in Johannesburg, Wasteman
incinerator at Klerksdorp in the North West province, Wasteman's
treatment facility in Durban KZN and Maximus Bricks in Welkom Industria.
The investigation has uncovered that hundreds of tons of waste are
rather being taken from the two facilities in KZN and North West to the
Maximus Bricks site, to be illegally buried. This poses a significant
health risk to the businesses and communities surrounding these areas,
including the risk that significant harm may be caused to the
environment (pollution of soil and underground water resources).

These searches confirmed that this company has been arranging for
truckloads of medical waste to be buried at three different sites in and
around Welkom in the Free State, instead of being treated and disposed
of as required by law. The raid at the Maximum Bricks site in Welkom
revealed that a significant amount of medical waste has been buried at
the site, including sharps, viles, syringes, drips, dirty bandages and
general medical waste. This is in contravention of a number of
provisions of the National Environmental Management: Waste Act which
came into effect on 3 July 2009. The maximum penalties for committing
these offences are R10 million or 10 years imprisonment or both. The
Green Scorpions at the site also issued the owner of the brick factory
with a compliance notice instructing the closure of the site, the clean
up of the waste by an approved waste management company and the
requirement to make the site secure.

One aspect of the investigation focused on the burying and dumping of
truckloads of medical waste in and around Welkom in the Free State;
however, this investigation, with the support of the SAPS, also includes
allegations of corruption and fraud.

The investigation revealed that hundreds of tons of waste are rather
being taken from these facilities to the sites near Welkom to be buried
as these facilities are unable to deal with volumes of waste brought to
the site. This poses a significant health risk to the businesses and
communities surrounding these areas. Medical waste includes anatomical
waste (amputated legs, arms, placentas, foetus, ext), pharmaceutical
waste (old tablets and medicine) and general medical waste (used
syringes, used medical gloves, blood stained clothes, blood samples,
ext) which poses a significant health and bio-hazard risk to the people
that may come into contact with it, as well as a risk that significant
harm may be caused to the environment (pollution of soil and underground
water and surface water resources).

The Group services a large volume of hospitals in the country, including
private hospital groups, such as Medicross, Life Healthcare, Netcare and
provincial hospitals which are situated in five provinces (Kwazulu-
Natal, Eastern Cape, Gauteng, North West and the Western Cape).

At the other sites the execution of the warrants included the collection
of documentary and electronic information as well as detecting
non-compliance with conditions of applicable permits. At both the KZN
and North West sites, it was clear that there were several
non-compliances. An urgent decision will now be taken as to the
enforcement action required in relation to the two treatment and
disposal facilities belonging to Wasteman, based on these
contraventions.

The criminal investigation in relation to this waste management company
will continue and EMIs will be monitoring the compliance notice issued
to Maximus Bricks to ensure that the instructions are carried out as a
matter of urgency. The Department will not tolerate the blatant
disregard for the stringent laws that are now in place to ensure that
waste is managed correctly, especially when this disregard places
communities and the environment at risk. Zero tolerance will be applied
in relation to the medical waste sector. Compliance with the law is not
negotiable and players within the sector must understand this.

Members of the public are urged to report environmental incidents and
crimes to the 24 hour hotline number - 0800 205 005.