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Tough talk is not enough to ensure compliance by illegal manganese operators. Only tough action by the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality (NMBM) and law enforcement agencies will get the job done.

By giving these illegal manganese ore operators an additional 12 months to comply the NMBM is sending a signal to all non-compliant businesses and developers that they are tolerant of law breakers.

The DA therefore proposes that within the next 30 days the NMBM must:

• Request the Green Scorpions to assess environmental damage and act against illegal operators.

• Liaise with relevant national departments such as Transport and Environmental Affairs to second officials to assess damage and coordinate their response.

• NMBM’s traffic police must set up daily spot checks across the metro to assess compliance of manganese trucks and issue fines where they do not comply.

• Public Health and Human Settlements must immediately issue the relevant compliance notices to the illegal operators notifying them of areas of non-compliance.

• NMBM’s roads department must do a cost assessment of the damage to road infrastructure and move to recover costs from illegal operators.

If after 30 days, the identified operators remain non-compliant, they must be issued with a final warning to comply within a further 30 days or face being shut down.

The DA has long held the view that the NMBM has failed to enforce its own by-laws and consequently the manganese problem has escalated out of control.

The NMBM has a duty to its law-abiding residents to take urgent action and to send a strong signal that we will not tolerate any law breakers.

The DA recognize that manganese is a major job creator and contribute significant to our country's gross domestic product, but we cannot sacrifice the health, environmental well-being and roads infrastructure of our city.

Issued by DA NMB Spokesperson for EDTA, Cllr Kobus Botha