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Dumping and littering

Jurisdiction
Kannaland
Date
1 March 2024
Language
English
Type
Legislation
Kannaland
South Africa

Dumping and littering By-law, 2024

1. Definitions

In this by-law, unless the context indicates otherwise—"attendant", means an employee of the municipality or agent of the municipality duly authorised to be in charge of the disposal site;"municipality" means the Kannaland Local Municipality established in terms of Section 12 of the Municipal Structures Act, 117 of 1998, and includes any political structure, political office bearer, councilor, duly authorised agent thereof or any employee thereof acting in connection with these by-laws by virtue of a power vested in the municipality and delegated or sub-delegated to such political structure, political office bearer, councilor, agent or employee;"owner" also means lessee, occupier, resident or any person who obtains a benefit from the premises or is entitled thereto and also includes any insolvent estate, executor, administrator, trustee, liquidator judicial manager;"premises" means residential-, business-, and industrial premises and includes any land, whether vacant, occupied or with buildings thereon, forming part of a piece of land laid out as a township, irrespective of being proclaimed as a township;"removal "day" means the day fixed by the municipality for removal of waste from premises and depending on the case may be multiple removals per week;"dump" means to dispose of waste in any manner other than a manner permitted by law and includes, without derogating from the generality of the foregoing, to deposit, discharge, spill or release waste, whether or not the waste is in a container or receptacle, in or at any place whatsoever, whether publicly or privately owned, including but not limited to vacant land, rivers, waterways, catchments and sewage and storm water systems. The act of "littering", which retains its ordinary meaning, is excluded from the definition of "dump";"waste" includes—(a)"business waste" which means any matter or substance arising out of the use of business premises but does not include, hazardous waste, material, domestic waste or garden waste;(b)"domestic waste" which means any fruit or vegetable peels, fruit or vegetable waste, general domestic waste which is of such size that it may be deposited in a refuse bin but does not include garden waste;(c)"garden waste" which means waste originating from a gardening activity such as grass cutting, leaves, plants flowers or similar waste of such size that it can be placed in a refuse bin;(d)"hazardous waste" which means any waste, matter or substance which may be hazardous or harmful to the environment and residents or which may pollute the environment including asbestos, motor oils or lubricants, or any other waste, matter or substance which constitutes hazardous waste as envisaged in the Hazardous Substances Act, 1973, Act 15 of 1973;(e)"offensive waste" means any waste, matter or substance which may be harmful to the environment and residents and includes, but is not limited to—(i)animal products, animal carcasses and meat as defined in the Meat Safety Act, (Act 40 of 2000) and in the Red Meat Regulations promulgated under GN 1072 of 17 September 2004;(ii)health care waste as defined in the Western Cape Health Care Waste Management Act, 2007, (Act 7 of 2007);(f)"materials" which means any stone, rock, sand, building materials or building rubble or any other type of composite or artificial materials such as plastic pipes and similar materials as well as materials which are utilized in the erection of buildings or structures or any other materials which constitute materials;

2. Dumping and littering

(1)No person may—
(a)litter or cause or permit littering of waste;
(b)dump or cause or permit the dumping of waste.
(2)If the provisions of subsection (1) are contravened, Council may direct, by way of a written notice in terms of subsection (5), any or all of the following persons—
(a)any person who committed, or who directly or indirectly caused or permitted, the contravention;
(b)the generator of the waste, whether or not the generator is responsible for the contravention;
(c)the owner of the land or premises where the contravention took place, if the owner failed to take the steps set out in subsection (3);
(d)the person in control of, or any person who has or had, at the time of the contravention, a right to use, the land or premises where the contravention took place, if that person failed to take the steps set out in subsection (3);
(e)any person who negligently failed to prevent the contravention from taking place, to cease the contravention in a specified time, or to prevent a further contravention or the continuation of the contravention, and to take whatever steps Council considers necessary to clean up or remove the waste, to rehabilitate the affected facets of the environment and to ensure that the waste, and any contaminated material which cannot be cleaned or rehabilitated, is disposed of lawfully.
(3)A person who owns land or premises, or who is in control of or has a right to use land or premises, may not use or permit the use of the land or premises for unlawful dumping of waste and must take reasonable steps to prevent the use of the land or premises for this purpose.
(4)Council may issue notices—
(a)for the purposes of giving directions in terms of subsection (2);
(b)for compelling persons to comply with their obligations under subsections (3); and
(c)for any other purpose under this by-law, and may, in the notice, specify a reasonable time within which the directions given in the notice must be complied with.
(5)In addition, or as an alternative to, the steps set out in subsection (2), or if a person fails to comply with directions given in a notice issued under subsection (4), Council may itself take whatever steps it considers necessary to clean up or remove the waste, to rehabilitate the premises or place and affected facets of the environment at which the waste has been dumped and to ensure that the waste, and any contaminated material which cannot be cleaned or rehabilitated, is disposed of lawfully. Council may then recover the costs of taking these steps from any of the persons listed in subsection (2), who shall be jointly and severally liable therefore.
(6)The costs claimed under subsection (5) must be reasonable and may include, but are not limited to, labour, administrative, overhead, investigation and prosecution costs.

3. Offences

Any person who—
(1)contravenes section 2(1)(a);
(2)contravenes section 2(1)(b);
(3)contravenes section 2(3);
(4)fails to comply with the terms of any notice issued under section 2(4);
(5)obstructs Council when Council is taking steps under section 2(5), is guilty of an offence.

4. Penalties and convictions

(1)Any person guilty of an offence under section 3(1) is liable to a fine or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 60 days, or to both a fine and such imprisonment.
(2)Any person guilty of an offence under sections 3(2), 3(3), 3(4) and 3(5) is liable to a fine or imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year, or to both a fine and such imprisonment.
(3)A court shall, on a second and on subsequent convictions of a person guilty of an offence under section 3 (2) of this by-law, impose a sentence of a fine or imprisonment for a period not less than one year, or of both a fine and such imprisonment; provided that if the court is satisfied that substantial and compelling circumstances exist which justify the imposition of a lesser sentence, the court shall enter those circumstances on the record of the proceedings and may impose such a lesser sentence.
(4)A court convicting a person of a first offence under this by-law may impose a sentence of community service in place of a fine or imprisonment.
(5)A court may, when considering sentence, take into account as aggravating circumstances that, inter alia—
(a)a convicted person has delayed in complying with the terms of any notice or directions given to the person under this by-law;
(b)a financial advantage was or would have been gained by a convicted person in consequence of the commission of the offence.
(c)The dumped waste posed a potential or actual threat to public health, public safety or the environment.
(6)If a person is convicted of an offence under this by-law which has caused damage to or loss of property or which has had an adverse impact on the environment then, in addition to any other sentence it imposes, the court may—
(a)if the property belongs to another person, and on the application of the injured person or the prosecutor acting on the instructions of the injured person, order the convicted person to pay the injured person compensation for the damage or loss in accordance with section 300 of the Criminal Procedure Act, 51 of 1977;
(b)order the convicted person to, at his or her cost, and to the satisfaction of the Council, repair the damage and/or make good the loss and/or rehabilitate the environment.
(7)If a person is convicted of an offence under this by-law, the court may, in addition to any other punishment which it imposes, issue an order compelling the person to comply, within a period determined by the court, with the relevant provisions of this by-law or, where applicable, with the relevant provisions of any notice issued under this by-law.
(8)lf—
(a)a manager, agent or employee does or omits to do an act which it was his or her task to do or refrain from doing and which, under this by-law, is an offence for the employer to do or refrain from doing; and
(b)the act or the omission of the manager, agent or employee took place because the employer failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent the act or omission, then the employer is guilty of the offence and proof of the act or omission by the manager, agent or employer is prima facie evidence that the employer is guilty under this subsection; provided that no penalty other than a fine shall be imposed if a conviction is based on this subsection.

5. Repeal of by-laws

Any by-laws relating to dumping and littering adopted by the municipality or any municipality now comprising an administrative unit of the Municipality is repealed from the date of promulgation of these bylaws.

6. Short title and commencement

This By-law shall be called the Dumping and littering By-Laws, No: 3 of 2008 and takes effect on the date of publication hereof.
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History of this document

01 March 2024 this version
Commenced