Note to editors: Please find attached English and Afrikaans soundbites by Leanne De Jager MPL.
Gauteng residents’ health is at risk due to a persistent, bad smell resembling rotten eggs affecting the province. It is difficult to determine the source because the air quality monitors are not functioning. The stench, caused by hydrogen sulphide (H₂S), can cause dizziness, headaches, nausea, and worsen respiratory problems such as asthma.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng demands that the MEC for Environment, Ewan Botha, intervene to ensure that all air quality monitors are functioning properly.
Over the weekend, residents of Blairgowrie notified the DA that all City-owned stations measuring H₂S were offline. These include Buccleuch, Alexandra, Diepsloot, Ivory Park, Orange Farm, Davidsonville, Diepkloof, and Jabavu. Kliprivier was the only station transmitting any data.
Johannesburg is not the only area affected by the rotten egg smell. Mogale City and Pretoria had a similar issue not too long ago.
See photos here, here, here, and here.
The only working H₂S readings came from the Springs Girls High School station, which SAAQIS lists as Sasol-owned. Hourly averages stayed above the 5.02 parts per billion (ppb) odour threshold cited by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) from 03:00 to 08:00. At 14:00, the wind direction changed, and readings jumped roughly tenfold to 28.22 ppb in the 15:00 hour. A one-minute peak of 36.2 ppb was recorded at 14:39.
These numbers affect residents’ health, particularly children and the elderly. This issue is not new, and the DA has raised it repeatedly. Our pleas for intervention have fallen on deaf ears.
Wind direction alone cannot prove the source, and that is exactly the problem. MEC Botha’s department is meant to oversee air quality management in the province, yet nobody can show where this gas comes from. We do not know how much of it reaches Johannesburg homes, schools and clinics, or whether it is safe to breathe. This is a failure of provincial oversight.
The DA will submit questions to MEC Botha in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature regarding nonfunctional air quality monitoring. We will also liaise with our counterparts in national government to ensure that all monitoring stations in the province are working.
Air quality monitoring is not optional. It is a constitutional and statutory duty. Section 24 of the Constitution guarantees everyone an environment not harmful to their health. The National Environmental Management: Air Quality Act obliges the government to monitor, report, and enforce. A monitoring network that has been dark for weeks or months fails that duty, and the MEC is answerable for that failure.
A DA-led provincial government would immediately assess all air quality monitors in the province and ensure they are fixed immediately.
Residents can report incidents to the DA at the following email address: gpcomplaints@da.org.za