Sellers Beware: Your Liability For Environmental Pollution Cannot Be On-Sold!

It has often been the case that landowners seeking to sell property upon which environmental pollution occurs, have sought to protect their interests through contracts of sale and the passing on of liabilities associated with environmental statutory obligations to their purchasers.  The High Court has, however, called into question the effectiveness of such transactions, particularly where sellers of land are already subject to a directive obligating the owner of the land to take certain measures regarding the pollution.

In the watershed judgment of the North Gauteng High Court, in the matter between Harmony Gold and the Department of Water Affairs (together with other interested parties), the court held that Harmony Gold must continue to pay for the pumping and treatment acid mine water in and around the Orkney Gold Mine in terms of a directive issued to it, despite Harmony Gold having sold the mine to Pamdozi Gold Orkney in 2007.