Environmental Justice Action in Southern Africa
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GROUNDWORK's QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER
Volume 4, No 3
SEPTEMBER 2002

Inside this issue:

From the Editor
From the Smokestack
Lead Story – People's Action for Corporate Accountability
Four case studies told at our Corporate Accountability Week
Corporations "honoured" for greenwash
Goldman Environmental Prize Recipients gather at the WSSD
Air Quality – We are coming to kick your ass!
Waste Projects -Sanctioning the Stockholm Convention in Africa
Community News – South Durban and Sasolburg
Africa – Swaziland
International - Eye visit 
Cynics’ Corner
Focus on… Farid Esack
In brief

From the Editor

Dear friends

The World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) has come and gone but has kick-started a lot of campaigning within civil society and programs within government agencies.  Our lead story in this newsletter (pages 4 to 8) focuses on some of groundWork’s activities around the WSSD in Sandton last month.  On page 24 you can read groundWork’s director, Bobby Peek’s, personal reflections on the WSSD.

The groundWork Report, 2002, was published last month.  This will be an annual report reflecting on the status of environmental justice in South Africa.  This year’s report examines environmental justice in SA from the angle of corporate accountability.  Read more about it on page 22 and make sure you get your copy to read!

The WSSD also stimulated the publication of many new interesting and thought provoking books, reports and pamphlets.  Read about some of them on pages 22 and 23.

Regards, Linda

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From the Smokestack
By Bobby Peek

There is no doubt that the general outcome of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (the Summit) was a sad failure for the world. The overriding agenda of the Summit was to have been the delivery of services to the poor to reduce poverty - an agenda pushed by our own government.  However, the Summit became a process of trading services rather than delivering them.

In a post Summit interview, Danielle Mitterrand clearly pointed out, that in 1977 at Mar de la Plata, world leaders promised that there would be access to safe water for all by 1990.  This has not been achieved.  The resolution adopted at the Summit this year to halve the number of people without safe water by 2015, was already adopted in Rio 1992.  So these promises have all been made before and never kept.

However, what these broken promises do tell us is that civil society needs to get up and do things for ourselves rather than rely on our elected leaders to do it for us.  It is this realisation that I hope will be the greatest outcome of the WSSD for South Africans.  It is my sincerest hope that, in recognising this, we, the South African civil society movement, can develop a unity amongst ourselves that will allow for a concerted effort to improve our lives.

During the Summit there were nodes of concurrent activities that gave us hope that we could do it for ourselves.  Groups such as the Landless Peoples gathering at Shareworld, the various actions around the oil industry in Sasolburg and South Durban, the Anti-Privatisation Forum, the Social Movement Indaba, the community action against Iscor, the halting of a Shell development in Bryanston and the unity at the Corporate Accountability Week, have provided the motivation for future struggles.  We cannot rely on the State, nor on industry and big business - whose factories were polluting and pipelines were leaking whilst they were preaching about Sustainable Development in Johannesburg.

Finally, we must thank our funders who took the challenge to assist us with the WSSD, namely the Goldman Foundation, Hivos (through Interfund), the Solidago Foundation, ICCO and our regular funders.  Our appreciation also goes out to friends and colleagues, without whose assistance our Corporate Accountability Week would not have been a success.

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Lead Story

People's Action for Corporate Accountability
By Bobby Peek

In January 2001, after evaluating groundWork’s first two years of activity, it was abundantly clear that a single thread running through all our community campaigns was the abuse by corporations, dished out with impunity from prosecution or penalties.  It was this realisation that led groundWork to focus on Corporate Accountability during the World Summit on Sustainable Development.  It was clear to us then, that if we cannot develop mechanisms to hold corporations accountable, our struggles would be in vain. 

Thus, from the 19 – 23 August, the week prior to the World Summit, groundWork hosted a Corporate Accountability Week in Sandton.   This week brought together civil society, ranging from community people, activist and research NGO’s, religious representatives and labour representatives.  During the week participants shared stories and experiences about industrial pollution, toxic waste dumping, incineration, and destructive fossil fuel production and mining activities carried out by major corporations in local communities around the world.   

The gathering was attended by a stimulating mix of community activists and international NGO’s such as Friends of the Earth International, Third World Network, Greenpeace, Corporate Europe Observatory, CorpWatch, EarthRights International and the South African Exchange Programme on Environmental Justice, as well as local NGO’s such as EMG and Earthlife Africa and local Southern African communities that are challenging unsustainable industrial practices in their neighbourhoods. 

Richard Meeren, the legal representative for communities that have successfully challenged Cape PLC Asbestos and Thor Chemicals for damage caused to workers and neighbouring residents, gave the keynote address.  He highlighted the successes and difficulties of the legal challenge in an international system without any set legal framework.

After this, campaigners and community activists from the Americas and Europe, to Africa and Asia, all presented strategies and campaigns calling for corporate accountability.  Community activists had time with the major international NGO’s to understand these campaigns and strategies at an international level as well. 

During the week, in support of a local community’s struggle against Iscor, the South African steel refining giant, a protest was held in Sandton calling on Iscor to be held accountable for the pollution that they have caused in the Vaal Triangle.

Under the banner “People’s Action for Corporate Accountability,” the participants concluded the week-long gathering on the eve of the Summit with a resolution calling for governments to take action for citizens’ rights and binding controls on corporations.     (Click here to read the resolution.)

But more importantly, the resolution called for a mobilisation and unity of civil society to:  “Work together at all levels to ensure a common focus and greater coordination on corporate accountability, to build an even stronger and wider global movement taking these issues forward, and to share experiences, learnings, information and victories to secure environmental justice and people-centred development.” 

It was a first for the various international NGO’s such as those mentioned above, to share a platform and agree on a common strategy to tackle corporations.  It was even more powerful because of the reality that this platform and agreement was developed with local activists from the fencelines who live and experience these issues on a daily level.

The impact of the Corporate Accountability week, which culminated in the gripping Green Oscar Academy awards, was bigger than expected. Local and international media focus on the week and the awards ceremony did not go unnoticed by both industries and government leaders alike. Across the road from the Balalaika Hotel where international civil society representatives joined hands to further their struggle, government representatives meeting in the glass and marble corridors of Sandton Centre conceded that corporate accountability was a legitimate concern of the peoples that needed to be addressed.  The result of this was the Summit’s final text implementation reading:  “Actively promote corporate responsibility and accountability, based on the Rio Principles, including through the full development and effective implementation of intergovernmental agreements and measures, international initiatives and public-private partnerships, and appropriate national regulations, and support continuous improvement in corporate practices in all countries.”

What this will really mean in the long run, will be left by us in civil society to determine.  Like many of these promises made at the big UN gatherings, this could also turn out to be nothing more than hot air.

Post the Enron scandal it is clear that there has to be accountability.  Even Bush, so noted by his absence, cannot disagree with this. 

The challenge now is to take this mobilisation and initiated unity at the corporate accountability week, and to make it into a reality that will deliver justice for the very people whose daily struggle is to gain access to clean water, air and land to sustain themselves, rather than concern themselves with the United Nations and big international gatherings.

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Four case studies told at our Corporate Accountability Week
By Linda Ambler

Steel Valley community takes on Iscor

Members of the Steel Valley Crisis Committee, Vanderbijlpark, joined us in Sandton and shared on their community’s struggle against pollution caused by South African steel industry Iscor.   They allege that their groundwater and air pollution has been poisoned by pollution from the Iscor plant.   Sixteen local community members took legal action against Iscor earlier this year, claiming that their health had been seriously affected by pollution emanating from Iscor.  The case is still proceeding.  Following in depth TV documentaries on the alleged health impacts of pollution allegedly emanating from the Iscor plant, Iscor sought a gagging order preventing the court applicants from speaking further to members of the press.  According to the SVC Committee, various technical experts including researchers from Wits University have been involved in taking water and air samples in the area, all of which have revealed elevated levels of several toxic pollutants including lead, mercury and asbestos.

Shell in Bryanston

A dynamic woman from Bryanston, Sandton, took on oil giant Shell and won.  For seven years Mariette Liefferink fought Shell’s proposal to develop a Shell Ultra City fuel station in her neighbourhood.  Mariette believed that the fuel station would increase air and noise pollution in her community to an extent that would not only be detrimental to personal comfort but could also be life-threatening.  She went from pillar to post, visiting government officials, going house to house dropping off pamphlets, and studying tones of legal documents in an attempt to stop the proposed development.  Mariette saw her local struggle against one Shell Ultra City in the context of Shell’s global destruction of ecosystems and local communities: “I am persuaded to believe that the profit motive of Shell rarely takes into account the rights of residents and the long-term needs of our planet, “she said. 

On the eve of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, as Mariette was putting the finishing touches to her oral presentation slamming Shell’s proposed development in her neighbourhood, Shell capitulated and phoned her to say that they were shelving their proposal.  

Mariette’s seven-year long struggle cost her R100 000.

Burma

Burmese refugee, Ka Hsaw Wa, shared how the Burmese military regime and large multi-nationals have, for over a decade, been destroying the ecology of Burma and the livelihoods and culture of the Burmese people.  One such example of this is the collusion between the Burmese regime and multi-nationals Unocal (US based) and Total (France based) in the construction of the Yadana gas pipeline. 

Since the construction of the pipeline began in the early 1990s Ka Hsaw Wa has interviewed more than a thousand people and documented abuses, such as extrajudicial killings, torture, rape, intimidation and extortion, by security forces deployed to protect the pipeline project. Victims also told of forced labour, of forced portering (being forced to carry arms and supplies for soldiers patrolling the pipeline route), and the forced relocation of entire villages to clear the way for the pipeline and provide ready pools of forced labourers. The influx of soldiers to the previously isolated region has also caused an increase in illegal hunting, logging, and wildlife trade.

In 1995 Ka Hsaw Wa co-founded EarthRights International as a vehicle for exposing the links between human rights abuses and environmental injustice in Burma.  EarthRights International is representing fourteen Burmese peasants in a groundbreaking lawsuit in US Supreme Court of California. The case, known as Doe v. Unocal will go to trial in February 2003.  In June this year, the court found evidence that would allow a jury to find that Unocal’s joint venture hired the Burmese military and that Unocal is therefore vicariously liable for the military’s human rights abuses.

Ka Hsaw Wa was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 1999. (See www.earthrights.org )

Bhopal

The biggest chemical disaster, which has killed an estimated 20 000 people and injured half a million others was the gas leak at the Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal, India on 3 December 1984.

Greenpeace and Amit Srivastava from CorpWatch gave presentations conveying the immense proportions of this tragedy, and the daily suffering being experienced to this day by victims of exposure to the gas cloud.  According to CorpWatch, approximately 8000 people died agonizing deaths in the immediate aftermath of the gas leak, but the death toll has since risen to more than 20 000 and that more than 30 people die every month from exposure related causes.  At least 150 000 people in Bhopal continue to suffer debilitating exposure-related health effects.  More than 80 000 of these are too ill to work, and having to constantly spend money on medical treatment has led to extreme poverty.  Most of the victims have received pay-outs from Carbide, but these have been $500 or less.  Even those who were not alive during the incident suffer, with infants being born with deformities thought to be linked to the chemical exposure.

Last month an Indian court ruled that the Chairman of Union Carbide at the time of the Bhopal tragedy, Warren Anderson, should appear in Indian courts on charges of culpable homicide in connection with the tragedy.

Union Carbide was taken over by Dow Chemicals in February 2001.  

See www.CorpWatchIndia.org or www.bhopal.net.

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Corporations “honoured” for greenwash

Green Oscars were awarded to “leading” greenwash corporations at the Greenwash Academy Award ceremony held in Sandton last month
By Linda Ambler

It should go down as the most outrageous and most hilarious event associated with the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Sandton in August and September 2002.  “It” is the Greenwash Academy Award ceremony held at the Balalaika Hotel on the 23^rd August 2002 at which the winners of real green Oscar’s were announced. 

The world’s top polluting companies were nominated in 13 different categories, including Best Greenwash, Best Supporting Government, Best Picture, Best Documentary Destruction and Lifetime Achievement.  Oil giants Shell, BP, ExxonMobil and Sasol dominated the Greenwash Academy Awards, beating Biotech giants Monsanto, Novartis and Aventis and South African energy parastatal, Eskom.

Other winners were Enron for Best Makeup, Arthur Andersen for Best Documentary Destruction, and a joint award to Total, Unocal and Premier Oil for Best Foreign Direct Investment.

“Ten years ago in Rio, global business promised to deliver sustainable development. They have broken that promise, and have delivered greenwash instead,” said Oscar Green, the ceremony’s host.

Ardiel Soeker of groundWork collected the Green Oscar for Best Picture on behalf of Sasol for its billboard announcing: “We put as much into the community as we do into our petrol”.  Everyday Sasol puts tens of thousands of tons of toxic chemicals into community, including benzene, vinyl chloride, methylene chloride, and sulphur dioxide, to name but a few.

Owens Saro Wiwa, the brother of slain Ken Saro Wiwa, accepted the Lifetime Achievement Award on behalf of Shell.

“Oil companies are presenting themselves as solar companies, and companies that promote giant agribusiness and oppose consumer information are claiming to be the solution to world hunger,” said Craig Bennett of Friends of the Earth, a member of the Greenwash Academy. “We are delighted to recognize these companies for what they are: hypocrites.”

“These polluting companies are posing as friends of the environment and leaders in the struggle to eradicate poverty,” said Kenny Bruno of CorpWatch, another member of the Academy. “But often they spend more advertising their green projects than on the projects themselves. That’s Greenwash!”

The Academy’s definitions of Greenwash and Bluewash:

[1] Green*wash: (gren-wôsh) –washers, –washing, -washed 1) The phenomenon of socially and environmentally destructive corporations attempting to preserve and expand their markets by posing as friends of the environment and leaders in the struggle to eradicate poverty. 2) Environmental whitewash. 3) Hogwash.

[2] Blue*wash (n): 1. Allowing some of the largest and richest corporations to wrap themselves in the United Nations’ blue flag without requiring them to do anything new (New York Times). 2. Efforts by corporations to be perceived as part of the world humanitarian community through voluntary association with the United Nations, without provisions for accountability.

Click here for the full programme of the Greenwash Academy Awards.

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groundWork hosts Goldman Environmental Prize Recipients

by Bobby Peek

groundWork was privileged last month to host a gathering in honour of previous recipients of the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, many of whom were in Johannesburg attending the World Summit on Sustainable Development.

The Goldman Environmental Prize, the world’s largest award for environmental activists, is awarded annually to grassroots environmental “heroes” from all continents. …Thirteen previous recipients were able to attend our function, and three of them - Fatima Jibrell (Somalia), KaHsaw Wa (Burma) and Nat Quansah (Madagascar) – delivered short speeches.

The group of Goldman Prize Recipients also prepared a statement for world leaders gathered in Johannesburg for the World Summit:

“We, the Goldman Prize Recipients, declare our condemnation of the continued failure of our nations and governments to protect the people and their resources from the ravages of the corporate world.

The legal and institutional measures that leave our people vulnerable to the full power of these corporations need to be transformed.

            The WSSD has provided an opportunity to turn this around.  We propose a new global code of Ethics and board to oversee its implementation

            The failure of the UN conference to provide mechanisms and an opportunity to defend and protect our people and the earth's resources is directly related to the growing influence of these same global corporations over the policies and programs of the UN.

            This situation needs to be reversed.  To do this, our governments have to shoulder the responsibility for protecting our fundamental rights to development that is sustainable.

The people must also shoulder their responsibilities to remain fully engaged with their efforts to have a significant role in their own development. To ensure that the efforts of Governments and people achieve this goal, these initiatives have to be combined into one primary partnership that is capable of withstanding the assault of global corporate influence.      

The UN must itself recommit to its original goals and not to allow the corporations of the world to divert the UN from its mission of representing and protecting the highest ideals and rights of the people of the world to full and sustainable development.  This means that the UN and its agencies must be the vehicles and tools of people and their Governments that protect the global patrimony as well as the right of the world’s poor and dispossessed to full involvement in that quest.

The earth is not ours to destroy! “

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Air Quality Project

Industrial pollution causes various cancers, respiratory ailments, TB, skin irritations, rashes and a general weakening of the immune system and the ability for the body to fight diseases resulting in unemployment, causing poverty. Our belief is that our Government will act on our concerns.

This we understood in the context of:

Business assumes that their pollution is within some limit, so it is legal, and therefore they cannot be the cause of poverty and got the science to prove it and the lawyers to confuse it. Besides, they provide jobs, and revenue to the government not to mention profit sharing through social responsibility. “Ask Bafana Bafana”, I hear SASOL say.

And … the Government meanwhile can only make speeches on the will of the people. They need revenue to govern – develop policy, make laws, integrated development plans, environmental impacted assessments and other governance activities - so the revenue providers become an influence.

Which group influences Government the hardest is the dilemma. This dilemma becomes all too burdensome all too quickly for our politicians. Try as they might.

Groups in society have different roles to play in the developmental process.  These roles are shaped by their values and intentions. The relationship between the three groups is ever changing depending on who has the greater power to influence Government.

Community after community reported and toxic tour after toxic tour revealed that Corporations like SASOL, Engen, Shell, BP, and Caltex wield enormous pressure on Governments to facilitate governance frameworks that will further their own interests. How else is it possible for a benzene laden Sasolburg or a pipeline infested South Durban to exist in a democratic South Africa?  Corporations pro-actively buy off, divert, confuse and divide any attempt by communities to conscientise, mobilize, and organise around pollution reduction. And Government dare not interfere.

As different communities reported on the state of the relationship between the Corporates, Government and Communities from the different industrial regions in Southern Africa - we started drawing parallels, started making linkages and started to come to a common realisation.

Our plan then also became directed by a second assumption;: 

 For too long Corporations, the main revenue providers, have held the upper hand. For too long have their values and intentions received prominence. For too long have they actively, legally and scientifically sustained our poverty.

Within this context and driven by our own knowledge and experience, the group of pro–active citizens living next to refineries therefore developed a plan based on daily experience and a common view of the world. How unscientific, I hear the CSIR say.

The strategy simply is to CONSCIENTISE, MOBILISE and ORGANISE for a clean and healthy environment.

What about Business and Government - the other role players? On 15^th July we presented our plan to address industrial pollution to Government. We clarified that Big Corporate Criminals are our enemy and challenged Government to govern.

And by so doing the Southern African refinery community has firmly identified themselves with other communities and movements around the world who believe that a better world is possible - a world based upon community values and interest - a world absent of greed based development and exploitation.

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Waste Projects

Sanctioning the Stockholm Convention in Africa
NGO’s unite in support of a common POP’s elimination goal
By Llewellyn Leonard

Only recently has the voice of civil society NGO’s began to be recognized as a powerful force that needs to be taken into consideration in decision-making processes by government. Such joint collaboration between NGO’s and government can ensure rapid paths for sustainability to prevent further contamination of our environment

In July this year the International Persistent Organic Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN) hosted an Africa skillshare and workshop in Arusha, Tanzania. IPEN is a global network of public interest non-governmental organizations (NGO’s). The vision of IPEN, achieved through its participatory organizations, is to work for the global elimination of persistent organic pollutants (POP’s), on an expedited yet socially equitable basis. The skillshare was conducted to focus on developing ratification tools and techniques to ensure rapid ratification of the Stockholm Convention on POP’s, implement the Convention through clean production processes, and promoting the clean up of stockpiles of obsolete pesticides in Africa.

I was glad to see that over 110 participants from nearly 30 countries were attending the workshop. These included Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Senegal and the USA to name a few.  The majority of participants were from Africa. In addition to the many NGO delegates, there were also a number of government EPA officials and UN staff. I thought that the attendance of governmental officials at the workshop was a positive sign in that the concerns of civil society are beginning to be taken more seriously and that government and civil society need to work collaboratively on these issues if progress is to be made. Also in attendance at the workshop were Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) and the Global Anti-Incineration Alliance (GAIA).

The first day of the workshop focused on clean production in action. We focused on some of the key Clean Production concepts through work that is currently being undertaken by various groups in Africa and elsewhere. I found this session to be quite beneficial since current industrial systems, such as incineration, are not compatible with the environment since resources are consumed unsustainably, processed ineffectively into often superfluous disposal products and then burnt and dumped as waste, e.g. ash, which cause soil and groundwater pollution. However, some very important points where raised and agreed upon during the meeting, for example, that the transition to clean production would rely increasingly on smaller and cleaner material, and that the speed and volume of resources flowing through production consumption cycles can be reduced by improved product design that allows for reuse of components and materials recycling.

The workshop also focused on the African Stockpiles Project. One of the most controversial issues was the exportation of hazardous waste out of Africa to Europe. Whilst some participants felt that the exportation of hazardous waste should not be allowed, others felt that it was the responsibility of the producer of the waste to take accountability for it.  Workshops where also conducted to identify issues of concern. groundWork had the opportunity during the Waste/Stockpile disposal workshop to present the threat of a new hazardous waste incinerator in Sasolburg.  I was shocked to see the horrified expression on many participants’ faces about the new proposal. I could sense that many participants where aware about how environmental injustice is prevalent in poor communities, but many were shocked to learn that in addition to the many industries currently operating in Sasolburg, the South African government was considering the use of dangerous pollution technology whose operating will undermine the objectives of the POP’s treaty, since the Stockholm convention is a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from POP’s.

Manny Calonzo, GAIA secretariat, and I managed to get participants to sign onto a petition against the proposed hazardous waste incinerator in Sasolburg, which has since been forwarded to president Thabo Mbeki. Petitions were also sent out to participants against a proposal by Bennett Environmental Inc to site a hazardous waste incinerator in a residential area in Kirkland Lake, Ontario, Canada as well as an incinerator in the US. From the numerous signatures received, it was encouraging to note that many people understood that incineration is a dirty technology that is harmful to the health of people and the environment, and that alternative clean production technology is the way forward.

The workshop also focused on ratification of the Stockholm Convention in Africa. Dr Romy Quijano a medical doctor from the Philippines gave participants an excellent presentation on the ratification process. Although the domestic legislation procedures required for the approval of a treaty varies from country to country, some general steps where explained by Dr Quijano that where applicable to a number of countries. Such general steps included collection documentation, contacting authorities for issuing ratification instruments and identifying who would sign, identifying and undertake processes that lead to endorsement of ratification, determining if any declarations are needed, preparing and signing instruments and lodging instruments with the depositary. Many participants found this session most valuable and informative.

During the course of the IPEN meeting, Annie Leonard, co-ordinator of HCWH, held a workshop to introduce participants to HCWH. She explained the problems regarding health care waste and incineration. It was not shocking to see during the meeting that many people had experienced or were experiencing problems with health care waste and burning in their communities or knew of stories of health care waste being dumped in residential areas, since health care waste is such a pressing issue in Africa. At the end of the meeting we were able to sign up a number of individuals and organizations that are now affiliated with HCWH. I thought that it was the beginning of the road for tackling health care waste problems in Africa since our network regarding health care issues are expanding.

Overall, I felt that the IPEN Africa meeting was of tremendous success. At the end of the meeting there was an NGO strategy session where delegates agreed to a common platform to unite IPEN POP’s work in Africa and to forge a common understanding and path forward. The meeting led to the adoption of the IPEN Arusha Declaration on the elimination of POP’s in African Countries, which noted challenges being experienced, commitments that would be undertaken and government’s responsibility towards this process. It is hoped that government would use this declaration in future decision making processes.

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Community News

South Durban

Two major protests took place in South Durban during the WSSD.  The first, against pollution from the Engen refinery, took place on 24^th August 2002.  A memorandum was handed over to Engen MD Wayne Hartman.   In response Hartman said that the refinery had spent R109 million in past years on reduction emissions.

The second action, against pollution from the Shell/BP refinery took place on 3^rd September.  About 500 people bearing placards and posters participate in the protest action.  The action was organised by SDCEA and supported by members of Greenpeace.

A memorandum was handed over to Richard Parkes, MD of the refinery.  The memorandum called on the refinery to lower its emissions, replace contaminated soil around last year’s petrol pipeline leak, replace pipelines (instead of patching up leaks) and be transparent about industrial incidents.

In response, Parkes said that the refinery had spent R450 million on environmental improvements over the past 8 years, and that a new sulphur recovery plant would reduce SO₂ emission by 50% from next month.  However, Shell and BP still refuse to replace all the pipelines or to remove the soil contaminated during the pipeline lead.

Sasolburg
Earlier this month, Scotland’s first Minister visited Sasolburg and met with local community members and the Mayor to hear the community’s grievances against the chemical and oil giant, Sasol.

First Minister Jack McConnell was in SA attending the World Summit on Sustainable Development.  Sasol has recently invested in his homeland, and he agreed to make a courtesy call at the Sasol head quarters in Sasolburg – but not without first meeting with the community.

Mr McConnell and five of his advisors met with members of the Sasolburg Environmental Committee, Mayor Ndaba, and representatives from NGOs groundWork and Friends of the Earth, Scotland.

Nicholas Kasa, and other members of the Sasolburg Environmental Committee, eloquently conveyed to the First Minister the many negative impacts Sasol's operations have had on the surrounding environment and communities.  They spoke of high pollution levels, health problems in the area, bad smells when the wind blows from the Sasol plants towards the community, and regular industrial accidents, flaring, fires explosions.  

McConnell was also requested to approach Sasol to supply natural gas (through underground gas pipeline networks) to homes in the greater Sasolburg area, so that the poor residents no longer have to burn cheap coal in their homes.

McConnell was also taken to a nearby home to meet with a young child whose legs had to be amputated after being badly burnt when a Sasol truck was involved in an accident and spilled hazardous chemicals on the side of the road in 1998.

McConnell promised that he would raise the community's concerns with Sasol when he met the company's management immediately after meeting with the community. 

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Africa

CAMPAIGNING FOR HEALTH CARE WASTE SOLUTIONS IN SWAZILAND
By Violet Buluma, Yonge Nawe Environmental Action Group, Swaziland

Yonge Nawe Environmental Action Group, a Swaziland NGO, is working towards finding sustainable ways of managing medical waste in Swaziland that will not pose danger to the public.

Following a skills share by Health Care Without Harm (USA), groundWork (South Africa) and Yonge Nawe in Swaziland in August 2001 there have been several new developments, both at a local and national level.  For example at the local level, the Illovo Clinic has since started separating its waste, has developed an inventory of the medical waste being generated and is presently working towards implementing improved methods.

The Mbabane City Council landfills the health care waste which it collects from primary health care centres around Mbabane, such as the Salvation Army Clinic. According to Welcome Dlamini, the City Council’s Environmental Officer, they landfill medical waste every Thursdays after having collected it on this day from the various centres. This is done so every Thursdays after the waste-pickers have left so that they are not exposed to harm.  The medical waste is then covered with a layer of soil.  Mr. Dlamini says that their biggest challenge is to ensure that the waste pickers are not exposed to the dangers posed by health care waste, such as infectious material, contaminated needles or expired medicines.  Yonge Nawe has engaged Mr Dlamini as part of the organisation’s awareness raising activities and we hope that we will be able to assist him in finding the solutions he needs.

 However, in retrospect, the Mbabane landfill site is better managed than dumpsites in Matsapha and Manzini. At these sites there is no soil cover and the needles and other health care waste are left exposed.

At a national level, the country is preparing a National Integrated Health Care Risk Waste Plan (NIHCRWP) covering health care risk waste from hospitals, clinics, veterinarians etc. The ministry has recently embarked on a pilot project at Mbabane Government Hospital, which seeks to improve health care waste management systems. It hopes to come up with an integrated health care risk waste plan drawing experiences from the pilot project and other sources.

Yonge Nawe visited the Mbabane government hospital to collect information on their pilot project and also to find out how the organisation could be of assistance to the pilot project.  Although the pilot project is still in its infancy, it has begun to yield some positive results. Before the pilot project was introduced there were no systems for waste separation and treatment. In addition, all waste was incinerated. The hospital has started separating its waste into infectious and non-infectious waste using colour-coded bags (red and black). They are also using sharps containers for disposing sharps. According to Sister Simelane only infectious waste is now being incinerated. This seems to be the only appropriate option the hospital has at the moment, as it does not have resources to introduce alternatives. The incinerator was upgraded as part of the project. However, the incinerator is situated barely 50m away from a residential area and thus poses a health challenges to people and the environment.

A major concern to the hospital administrator was that most of the resources and equipment the hospital is using in the pilot project are imported and there are sustainability challenges when the pilot project (which is donor funded) ends.

Yonge Nawe is also participating in the development of Swaziland’s first National Solid Waste Management Strategy (NSWMS).  The objective of the NSWMS is: “To develop, implement and maintain an integrated waste management system that will reduce the adverse impact of all forms of solid waste on the economic development in Swaziland, the health of its people and the quality of its environment and its resources benefit,”

However, there is still a lot of work to be done but as saying goes “Rome was not built in a day.” Yonge Nawe believes that through our partnerships and networking with local, regional and international organisations, sustainable systems of managing waste will be achieved in Swaziland.

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International

Exchange of Young Executives (EYE) Foundation Skillshare
By Llewellyn Leonard

The EYE (Exchange of Young Executives) Foundation hosted a visit for eight South Africans to the Netherlands. This was a counter visit for one that had taken place in 2001, where eight Dutch visitors visited South Africa to understand the corporate, development co-operation and cultural sectors

I left for Holland on June 17^th and was warmly greeted by an energetic and vivacious Kirsten Visman, Programme Manager of De Baak and a delighted Nelleke of ICCO. EYE’s aim is to support and stimulate worldwide learning and the development of young managers from various backgrounds. The exchange was also to enhance the relationships and networks yet initiated in South Africa, and to offer the ‘South African Bunch’ a chance to build networks in the Netherlands.

Our first meeting was at PAUW (Passende Arbeid Utrecht West), a social reintegration project for the mentally and physically challenged. This was an excellent learning experience for us since unemployment is a concern in South Africa. The Ambassador for South Africa, Priscilla Jana, informed us that the relationship between the Netherlands and South Africa has strengthened over the last decade with an impetus by bilateral relations from donor to partner.

We travelled to Zeist and attended a special event at Baak Driebergen where all the big business had come together to increase their network contacts and attend workshops. This special event exposed me to a new culture in the Netherlands, where individuals wore costumes and played games, such as posing as statues. Although I didn’t understand these traditions, I found the experience to be mesmerizing.

I was excited at the opportunity provided by EYE for the South African bunch to visit Holland’s most beautiful garden, Florida. There were around 35 different countries present who had their own garden displays. It was an exhilarating experience walking through the colourful valley of flowers. It was like taking a trip through different gardens of the different parts of the world.

Sunday was a day of exploration in Amsterdam. We went on a canal ride to better understand the history and architecture of Amsterdam. We also travelled to City Hall Lelystad where we were given an informative presentation of Lelystad. I was surprised to hear this beautiful place was located on water.

Kirsten Visman arranged a visit to Ikazia hospital in Rotterdam. I was glad to see that the institution had a strong waste minimization plan in place. I thought that some of the systems in place at the hospital would be excellent to implement at the hospitals that groundWork is working with to better help with regard to waste segregation techniques.

The following day, Mr Andre Smit of Shell gave us a presentation on Shell’s perspective on sustainable development. Mr Smit highlighted that large amounts of money are being invested for upliftment of communities and the environment. Members of the bunch questioned these initiatives. Local examples of South Durban were given on how Shell has continued to pollute the environment and harm the lives of the community by air pollution and pipeline failures causing relocation and health impacts for some residents.  Mr Smit acknowledged that if such environmental and human rights abuses take place, then Shell should be held accountable for such abuses.

I believe that the EYE visit was of tremendous benefit. Some of the main objectives were fulfilled. These included the enhancement of the network initiated by the Dutch bunch, obtaining ideas and solutions for increased professionalism in my work, gaining a better understanding of the Dutch contribution in our country as well as South Africa’s contributions to the Dutch, and exchanging ideas and knowledge on and experience in Corporate Social Responsibility. It was an experience that we will treasure in the highest regard.

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Cynics’ Corner
By Greenfly

After the Summit

Security was so tight and some rooms so carefully debugged that even Greenfly found herself repeatedly being evicted from fatuous discussions between terribly important people in various Sandton hotel rooms during the recent World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD).  But it really doesn’t matter – the whole thing was so utterly devoid of innovation or surprise we could have scripted it months ago.

Hands up all those who believe anything politicians tell us.  No, I didn’t think there was anyone.

In a way it’s a pity though.  I mean if we could believe them, we could rest assured that our leaders have just committed themselves to “build a humane, equitable and caring global society cognisant of the need for human dignity for all” (The Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development, paragraph 2). Of course you’d really have to be living in cloud-cuckoo land to associate politicians with caring, humane action but even the more cynical do expect governments to regulate the affairs of society.

For example, groundWork and other progressive organisations worked hard to get the issue of ‘corporate accountability’ onto the table at WSSD. Hardly an unreasonable request, given the global scale and impact of multi-nationals on lives and environments. What governments were being asked was, in the first instance, to agree that regulation is necessary[1], and secondly to recognise the blindingly obvious fact that leaving this task up to the multi-nationals themselves - what business calls ‘voluntary self-regulation’ - is as good as putting the fox in charge of the henhouse.

Apart from business’ self interest, there really is no reasonable opposition to the call for enforceable, worldwide public-interest laws to govern the activities of corporates and to restore some sort of accountability on behalf of ordinary citizens. But, given the power of corporate influence over governments and indeed over the UN itself, did delegates agree to impose rules on socially and environmental exploitative, profit-seeking corporates?  Did they undertake to discharge their public responsibilities as our representatives?  Did they even agree to discuss the idea of regulation with a view to taking real action later perhaps?   No, they didn’t. Instead the final declaration bravely declares: “We agree that there is a need for private sector corporations to enforce corporate accountability” (The Johannesburg Declaration, paragraph 29)!

The need for corporate accountability is not only a global issue – it’s just as important at the South African level too. Of course here big business will point to the King II report and its recommendations on corporate governance to demonstrate the redundancy of calls for any real laws to control corporates. Now King II contains some fine insights and recommendations but the point is it’s ‘voluntary’. In fact many companies went into something of a panic when the Department of Trade and Industry appeared to mull over the possibility of making King II’s recommendations legally binding. The chairperson of the report, Mervyn King, was forced to clarify that legislating the recommendations "would be paramount to corporate suicide" and that he would resist any attempt by government to do this with the report[2].  So they’ll resist any moves to make decent recommendations actually enforceable but the rest of us are meant to be assured that, without the credible threat of enforcement, we can trust the bastards to clean up their act voluntarily! It’s impossible to avoid the conclusion that not even business takes its ‘self-regulation’ nonsense seriously.

Any chance that our government will surprise us and take up the corporate accountability challenge?  It’s possible – and the many hours that Minister Alec Erwin spent discussing the issue with pro-accountability activists during the WSSD made some think it even likely.  But, read the thoughts of our President reflecting on the Summit and note the none-too-subtle changes in tone as Mbeki reflects on the various roles and contributions of civil society:

“Major international, regional and national non-governmental organisations, which focus on the central issues of socio-economic development, poverty eradication and the protection of the environment were … present at the Summit.

"Present also were those who believe that the socialist revolution in all countries is the only solution to the challenges confronting all humanity. Some of these set themselves the task to disrupt the Summit and cause its collapse. In this context, some of these saw the WSSD as an opportunity for them to wage a struggle against our movement and government” (ANC Today, 6 September 2002).

Is it just Greenfly or does this sort of ‘analysis’ remind the rest of you of how an earlier South African regime demonised progressive critique as the work of communists?

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Focus on … Farid Esack
By Linda Ambler

Dr Farid Esack is one of groundWork’s trustees.  But that is one of his lesser titles, and smaller “hats”.  He is also a muslim cleric (mawlana), a gender activist, author, academic, and quite the most remarkable orator. 

Farid has a Bachelors degree in Islamic Law and Theology from Jami’ah Alimiyyah al-Islamia (in Pakistan) and a doctoral degree in Biblical Hermaneutics from the University of Birmingham.  He served as a Commissioner on the South African Commission on Gender Equality for four years and since then has been a Visiting Professor at several overseas universities in Germany and the USA.

All of this may seem a touch out of place with an environmental justice organisation like groundWork.  It is what else Farid does - his other driving passions - that led Farid to accept our invitation to become a trustee of groundWork.

He saw in groundWork an organisation with strong links to vulnerable communities and an organisation committed to fighting the status quo for a vision of a more just world. And this is what also “drives” Farid.  While he is an immensely intellectual man who mixes in high circles he has a strong desire to never forget his roots and to never remove himself from the “struggle”.

Farid was born in Cape Town in 1959, one of six sons of a working class, “Cape-coloured” family.  As a young child he experienced poverty, racial prejudice, forced removals, and gang violence.  His mother brought up her six sons, almost single-handedly, working at a steam laundromat.  As a young child growing up in a poor home, Farid can remember often being hungry and cold.   He can remember begging for food in the neighbouring white suburb.   He can also remember the sight of his blood soaked mother after she had been raped.

As young teenager Farid did not choose the lawless gangsterism he observed about him but instead, with a maturity beyond his years blended political activism with a devotion to Islam.  He served as the chairperson of National Youth Action, an anti-apartheid organisation, while also teaching at the local madressah (Muslim school). 

At the age of 15 he was awarded a scholarship to attend a seminary in Pakistan, which he did from 1974 to 1982, and where he studied a range of Islamic and secular subjects, eventually qualifying as a mawlana – a Muslim cleric. 

On returning to South Africa in 1982 he co-founded the “Call of Islam”, which later became a sub-organisation of the United Democratic Front (UDF).  He also founded Positive Muslims, an organisation supporting Muslims who are HIV positive.  Currently he serves on the board of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), the largest AIDs advocacy organisation in the country.

As a human rights activist, Farid holds no punches. He speaks straight and he speaks plainly.   To many he is a thorn in the side, criticising those in high places and marching with those who have an axe to grind.  As long as he is on groundWork’s side, we will know we are on the right path!  

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In brief

SA ratifies conventions
This month South Africa announced that it had ratified both the Stockholm and Rotterdam Conventions.  The Stockholm Convention seeks to eliminate persistent organic pollutants from planet earth, while the Rotterdam Convention is on Prior Informed Consent (PIC).

Mercury and dioxin contaminated sites flooded in Europe
Contaminated buildings at a chemical factory on the flood plain of the Elbe River upstream of Prague were flooded during the floods which swept through Europe last month.  The two dioxin-contaminated buildings were former production facilities of the herbicide 2,4,5-T, more commonly known as Agent Orange. The company halted its 2,4,5-T production on account of the severe health effects on workers in 1968. The chemical factory Spolana Neratovice is situated approximately 25 kilometres north of Prague on the river Elbe. Spolana produces polyvinylchloride (PVC) and other basic chemicals and pharmaceutical products. Greenpeace has protested the company's reluctance to clean up its dangerous wastes and repeatedly warned about the contamination in Elbe River's flood plain and the possibility of a disaster if flooding occurred. (1) "Spolana should be made accountable for the damages caused by this accident. They have known for years about the risks connected with contamination on their site," said Martin Hojsik, Greenpeace Toxics Campaigner for Greenpeace Central Europe. "Despite knowing about the dangers, the company has not taken specific measures to clean up and prevent what we now see today."

Boycott Burmese Teak
Democracy movements in Burma are asking the world not to buy products made in Burma, in particular Burmese teak.  They say that Burmese peasants are enlisted as forced labourers in the logging of Burmese teak trees, that indigenous teak forests are being destroyed, and that the income generated from the sale of Burmese teak benefits only the Burmese military regime.  See www.earthrights.org/teak/.

Apartheid victims seek reparations from oil giant and others
Royal Dutch/Shell, the oil company, has been cited in a multi-billion-dollar class action lawsuit brought by a team of lawyers on behalf of the victims of South Africa's apartheid regime. Shell is accused of supplying the white minority regime with oil in violation of an anti-apartheid embargo.   It joins 34 other companies including IBM, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, Citicorp, Exxon Mobil and Barclays, who are all being taken to court in an effort to force them to pay reparations to the victims of the apartheid regime.

Richards Bay gas leak
An investigative panel set up to look into the causes of a gas leak from a pesticide factory in Richards Bay has recommended that the pesticide company should be prosecuted.  More than 200 people suffered sulphur dioxide and sulphur trioxide poisoning following a gas leak from the Foskor fertiliser plant in Richards Bay on 15 July 2002.  Many people had to be hospitalized, and some of the victims are still experiencing health effects (such as difficulty breathing) two months after the incident occurred.  The Foskor Incident Panel which was subsequently established by the provincial government and tasked with looking into the causes of the incident, that the company should be prosecuted for non-compliance of its permit conditions.

US bans mercury thermometers
The U.S. Senate has passed legislation that bans the sale of mercury fever thermometers anywhere in the United States. The Senate voted unanimously on Thursday to pass The Mercury Reduction and Disposal Act of 2002 (S 351), authored by Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican. Besides banning new thermometer sales, the bill would also help solve some of the nation's mercury disposal problems.

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