PRESS RELEASE
4 February 2004
Bill Does Not Guarantee Corporate Accountability
Cape Town, South Africa: Over the next two days, community
representatives living with hazardous industries in their neighbourhoods
will be presenting their concerns on environmental injustices associated
with air pollution to the National Portfolio Committee on Environment
and Tourism. This is in response to the "National Air Quality Management
Bill" that has been tabled in parliament.
The fact that this Bill is in front of Parliament is a testimony to
the long term campaigning that people's organizations across South Africa
have undertaken to challenge the South African government and industry
locally, as well as in the international arena on a legacy of poor environmental
governance.
Community representatives from Sasolburg, Secunda, Boipatong, Richards
Bay, South Durban and Table View Cape Town will be testifying to the conditions
they have to endure. In Sasolburg, local clinic records indicate that
40% [1] of all patients suffer from respiratory problems, and in south
Durban the local leukaemia rate is estimated at 24 times higher than the
national average. Learners at local schools in both Table View and south
Durban have presented above average levels of respiratory problems. In
south Durban respiratory problems affect 52% of learners [2] and in Table
View 23.7% of learners reported asthma symptoms and 64.6% hay fever [3].
These conditions have been linked to the polluting oil refineries in the
area, such as Shell, BP, Engen and Caltex.
Despite the harrowing statistics, the Bill does not make clear articulations
on health, and more importantly does not call for the reduction of pollution
as a key departure point.
Failure to protect health The question asked by people who have to face
industrial pollution daily is; will our health improve with the proposed
Bill? Long time residents in south Durban and Table View, Desmond D'Sa
and Andy Birkenshaw respectively, raise concern that the bill does not
address the improvement of health as a key objective. Repeated submissions
on the Bill to the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT)
by the community group's legal representatives, the Legal Resources Centre
(LRC) have raised concerns that health is not a key objective in the proposed
legislation, yet it continues to be ignored. Health is not seen as a positive
action, but rather as a "rear guard" action, i.e. to reduce
health risk, rather than seek to improve health.
Based upon the following this Bill fails to deliver on the constitutional
commitments with regard to protecting peoples' health. Air pollution standards
are left to the discretion of the Minister Air pollution standards have
been a rallying cry by civil society organisations in South Africa since
before apartheid. Often South Africa is presented as a lawless society
with regards to environmental governance for there are no air pollution
standards. Failure to develop ambient and emission air standards will
lead to companies continuing to pollute. It is left up to the Minister's
discretion if he/she should choose to develop ambient or emission standards.
Caroline Ntaopane and Octavia Nkosi who live in Sasolburg and Secunda
respectively are shocked that the Bill is ambiguous about developing standards.
"Sasol continues to get away with their pollution since government
cannot hold them accountable for their emissions as there are no air pollution
standards" says Octavia and Caroline who both live adjacent to Sasol
plants.
Information is the key to successful governance Information has been
a hotly contested terrain within environmental governance. It was only
in 2000 when groundWork and various community organisations did public
air samples with the Bucket Brigade that communities had access to information
on industrial pollution within their neighbourhoods. Industry challenged
the information gathering techniques, by doing their own sampling. Not
surprisingly they found the same chemicals at even higher levels [1].
"The Minster must prescribe how measurements must be taken and information
gathered, or else industry will continue to contest information,"
states Matshediso Tsotetsi, of the Boipatong Environmental Committee.
We cannot wait any longer - timeframes must be set The Bill is riddled
with vagueness on when certain key actions will be taken to improve governance.
There are no timeframes for the establishment of a framework for achieving
the objective of the Act, setting of standards, the length of time a facility
can hold a provisional license while not operating appropriately, and
when licenses must be reviewed. In south Durban, community people have
waited for four years for a monitoring system while pollution continues
and companies are not held accountable. In KZN the Compass Waste managed
Ixopo incinerator continues to operate without a permit. Unless timeframes
are stipulated the Bill becomes meaningless.
Can the local authorities assume this responsibility? Local municipalities
are under severe pressure to cope with the challenges of delivery. In
areas such as Sasolburg and Richards Bay there are very few, if any, dedicated
environmental staff to deal with the environmental challenges posed by
the heavy polluting industry in the area. The result is that incidence
like the two gassing by the Foskor Plant in Richards Bay goes unchallenged
by local municipalities. There is no clear mechanism described as to how
provinces will intervene if local municipalities cannot fulfil their function
of licensing and/or monitoring. At a local level the power of big industry
is evident. Edmond Skosana of Vuka Environment Dot Com, a civil society
organisation challenging polluters in Richards Bay confirms that "local
government is powerless in the face of huge multi-nationals and the Foskor
gassings where people have been injured and lost their lives is testimony
to this." In a large municipality such as Durban the eThekwini Mayor
had to "reconsider legal" action after meeting Shell management.
Unless the Portfolio Committee in reviewing this Bill addresses the
above issues, this Bill will fail to deliver environmental justice and
corporate accountability to the citizens of the polluted neighbourhoods
of South Africa. While the appearance of this Bill is a victory for the
residents who have campaigned for so long, we must be careful not to "choke
on the hidden fumes" of ambiguity within the Bill. We implore the
Portfolio Committee to make the necessary changes.
For more information call 082 464 1383 for: Bobby Peek, groundWork
Angela Andrews, Legal Resources Centre
Desmond D'Sa, South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (083 982
6939)
Edmund Skosana, Vuka Environment Dot Com (082 357 7870)
Andy Birkenshaw, Table View Residents Association (083 703 0183)
Caroline Ntaopane, Sasolburg Air Quality Monitoring Committee Matshediso
Tsotetsi, Boipatong Environmental Committee.
Octavia Nkosi, Higheveld East Community Environmental Monitoring Association
Footnotes: [1] groundWork, 2002. National Report on Community-based
Air Pollution Monitoring in South Africa. See www.groundwork.org.za
for copy.
[2] White, et al, 2003. A Study of Allergic Diseases and the Urban
Environment in the Northern Communities of Cape Town, South Africa.
University of Cape Town, SA
[3] Robbins, et al, 2002. The Settlers Primary School Health Study, Draft
Final Report, produced by the University of Natal Faculty of Medicine,
Durban Institute of Technology's Department of Environmental Health,
University of Michigan (USA).
Cape Town
4 February 2004
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