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The water pollution saga between the Newcastle Municipality and Faizel Cassim, ActionSA’s mayoral candidate and owner of Newcastle Industrial Laundry, continues.
This comes on the heels of Michael Beaumont, ActionSA’s National Chairperson, and Dr Makhosi Khoza, the party’s Provincial Chairperson, visiting Newcastle on Wednesday, 27 October 2021, to clear Cassim’s name following the claims against him.
The Newcastle Municipality officially released the lab results for the Amcor Dam and Ncandu River pollutants on Tuesday, 26 October 2021.
In its statement, the government entity stated that in the interest of accountability and transparency, and without fear of contradiction, it released the most recent laboratory results from the Amcor Dam and various contributing pollution sources, including the industrial laundry, which channels pollutants into Newcastle’s water sources.
According to the Newcastle Municipality, several chemicals that matched those found in industrial laundry samples were discovered. This includes the following:
- dissolved copper
- dissolved iron
- dissolved manganese
- dissolved selenium
- dissolved zinc
- grease and oil
- Ph chemical
- suspended fluids
“Higher concentration of these chemicals indicates waterborne diseases, pollution, sewer blockages and pump failure,” it states.
The municipality claims to have turned over the case to law enforcement. “This will enable the affected parties the right to fairly represent themselves without scepticism of being prejudiced. A criminal case was opened with the police in Newcastle.”
Further stating, “The municipality would like to categorically state that the politicisation of this serious issue is not only a slap on the face for the people of Newcastle, but a desperate ploy to try and hide behind a political banner by the environmental delinquents,” the municipality adds.
However, during the media briefing on Wednesday, Dr Khoza stressed the importance of ActionSA’s responsibility to South Africans. “Especially if a matter that is raised, that is compromising the quality of life of our citizens. It is within this context, that when these allegations first surfaced a month ago, literally a month before elections, we took it seriously.”
Moreover, Dr Khoza stated that ActionSA decided to conduct its own independent testing because it held itself to a higher standard. This was done to see if Faizel Cassim was indeed involved in the Amcor Dam and the Ncandu River pollution.
According to Michael Beaumont, Cassim was cooperative every step of the way when it came to conducting their investigations and conducting their research. “Independent companies, not just one, but in fact two, were sourced to conduct these tests.”
He highlighted, “I think from the start, the most important thing to communicate about the test results is that the test results indicate that there is no way the contamination of the Ncandu River or the contamination of Amcor Dam can be traced back to the laundromat. That is the key finding.”
Beaumont went on to say that a significant takeaway from these results is that they show there is no way to link Cassim’s laundromat directly to the contamination of the Ncandu River or the Amcor Dam.
In fact, according to the executive summary of the test results, Newcastle’s entire water system is contaminated, both above and below the laundry. Sewerage is the most severe contaminant in the system, thanks to Newcastle’s ageing infrastructure.
Beaumont adds, “We are sitting with test results that do not substantiate the claims of the municipality.”
With this in mind, ActionSA fully supports Faizel Cassim and is now holding the municipality accountable for how they arrived at their allegations, which found Cassim guilty before the tests were even performed.
As this case is ongoing, once the courts make a ruling, a final article on the matter will be published.
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