TRANSGRESSORS of Public Health By-laws in the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality (EMM) will now face the wrath of the law as the local authority unleashes its Environmental Health Practitioners (EAP) in to the community.
EAPs will start issuing fines for offences like creating a public health hazard or nuisance e.g. illegal dumping, businesses not kept in a clean state, premises that may be a danger to health, rodent infested premises, fly breeding and many more.
Other fines relate to water pollution, potentially hazardous use of premises, sanitary services, offensive trades, hairdressing facilities, second hand goods, accommodation establishments, dry cleaning operations, swimming pools and spa baths, child care services, keeping of animals, caravan parks and camping grounds, exhumations, management and operations of ingoma-initiation schools, air pollution and health care waste.
This latest development follows the promulgation and registering of the EMM Public Health By-laws in the Provincial gazette on 27 November 2009, giving EAPs powers to issue fines.
“Until now our hands were tight as there was no uniform set of By-laws applicable across the metro. Instead you had several By-laws applicable to various towns and this made it impossible to have the same standard across Ekurhuleni,” explains municipal spokesman Zweli Dlamini, pointing out that all the previous By-laws have been repealed and replaced by the new Public Health By-laws as of November last year.
Dlamini further explains that the community played a pivotal role in putting the new law in place through the public participation process that preceded the final adoption of the By-laws.
“We are on a mission to rid our Metro of pollution and ensure that Ekurhuleni, as a point of entry to South Africa now, during the soccer world cup and beyond, is in a clean and hygienic condition,” adds Environmental Health director Jerry Chaka.
The municipality is calling on communities and business to comply with minimum health requirements or face the music. “This environment belongs to all of us, we are all therefore duty bound to preserve it and keep it in a clean and green condition at all times, for future generations to benefit from it as well,” points out Chaka.
The Public Health By-laws empowers Council to, at any time, at its own cost take whatever steps it considers necessary in order to remedy the harm caused by a particular nuisance and prevent a recurrence of it, and to recover the reasonable costs so incurred form the person responsible for causing the nuisance.
There is provision for people convicted of certain sections of the By-laws to face imprisonment or a fine or both.Source: Ekurhuleni
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