Greenpeace Africa had Umbilo River pollution concerns under radar 'for months'
Umbilo River has been on Greenpeace Africa's radar for months over pollution concerns.
This week, thousands of litres of crude oil seeped into its waters at Bellair, south of Durban, after thieves apparently tampered with Transnet infrastructure.
The state-owned group says the pipeline's been repaired - but experts are still trying to contain the spill, which's made its way to the Durban Harbour.
They say that may take weeks to clean up.
Delwyn Pillay is with the environmental organisation, Greenpeace Africa.
"We were shocked and in horror, a lot of the residents have been aware of the pollution," he said.
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"And we have been fighting against the pollution of the Umbilo River for months now and it's been an issue, so it just shows we need to move away from fossil fuels in these large infrastructures.
Pillay says Transnet's had issues for years, "A couple of years back there was an incident that happened in the Hillcrest area, so we have been calling from them to have proper monitoring of that pipe,"
Meanwhile, Hawks officials are trying to catch the thieves who stole R10 000 worth of fuel from a Transnet pipeline on a route linking Joburg and Kroonstad.
