By Chris Albertyn
PIETERMARITZBURG, Natal — The new South African government of national unity has not only rejected strong and well-motivated calls for a commission of inquiry into the skulduggery surrounding the toxic waste importing operations of British company Thor Chemicals; it intends passing laws making legal the continued import and export of toxic wastes.
Prior to the April elections, the African National Congress promised to ban the import of toxic wastes.
Rejecting an ANC National Environment Task Group call for a full public inquiry into disturbing evidence linking Thor Chemicals with, amongst other serious allegations, international arms and chemicals weapons smuggling, the government is satisfied that the part-time investigations of two overworked junior officials in the Department of Labour are sufficient.
Senior executives of Thor's plant at Cato Ridge near here are facing charges of murder after the death of a worker from mercury poisoning in July 1993.
It appears that the old bureaucracy in the Department of Environment Affairs, now under the National Party's Dr Dawie de Villiers, is still stuck in its old apartheid mode of paying mere lip-service to the environment, while paying homage to the captains of commerce and industry. Rather than face the embarrassment of opening a multinational can of worms, the new government has turned a blind eye to serious allegations against Thor Chemicals.
Calls for a commission of inquiry have been mounting along with increasing evidence linking Thor with conspiracy, murder, chemical weapons deals, worker deaths, gross environmental contamination and irregularities — some say corruption — in associated government departments.
During the first week of June, the ANC National Environment Task Group, represented by ANC environment desk chief Tami Sokutu, handed de Villiers a comprehensive dossier outlining substantial "prima facie evidence" which, according to the submission, was "beyond the means of anything but a judicial commission of enquiry to consider and investigate further."
The report listed, with accompanying evidence, three major areas of concern:
"1. Certain prima facie evidence and allegations surrounding the murder of Thor Chemicals chemist, Alan Kidger, and connections with international chemicals and arms smuggling ...
"2. Evidence in our possession suggests a strong case for further investigation into possible crimes committed by Thor, in addition to the ones they are already charged with; including allegations of foreign exchange irregularities.
"3. We have documentary evidence of irregularities by officials in both the Departments of Water Affairs and National Health and Population Development in their monitoring and regulation of activities at Thor Chemicals. Some of these documents were submitted to the Attorney-General of Natal in November 1993. Due to resource and expertise constraints the Attorney General requested that the department of National Health investigate and write a report on themselves. No further information has been forthcoming."
The minister called Thor's chief, Steve van der Vyver, to his offices for a private chat, and then released a statement to the press saying that present investigations into Thor were sufficient. The ANC National Environment Task Group awaits the courtesy of a reply other than by the press.
The investigations into Thor are being conducted by two junior inspectors in the Natal offices of the Department of Labour, who by their own admission are not qualified and do not have the time to do the job properly. Messrs Robberts and Sutherland also advised the writer that they were not at liberty to investigate any matter under the jurisdiction of other departments, for example National Health and Water Affairs, or the allegations of foreign exchange irregularities and the murder of the top Thor official in South Africa by, the South African Police Service believes, the Israeli secret police Mossad.
The Department of Environment Affairs is about to publish a set of regulations which appear to make a farce of the government fanfare surrounding South African accession to the Basel Convention on toxic waste exports. According to the assistant director of pollution control, Pierre Cillie, the reservations made by his department on the convention are actually longer than the convention itself.
"When I say there are lots of reservations, I mean there are really lots", said Cillie. Asked if there had been any consultation in the drafting of these regulations, Cillie was proud to say that business and industry had helped with the drafting. "We will be publishing these regulations during July, and the public is welcome to comment", concluded Cillie.
In a move clearly motivated and manipulated by big business and money interests, the old South African government hurried the accession to the convention literally hours before new constitution came into effect. According to government legal adviser Willem Scott, the reason it rushed the signing was to "avoid having to enter into a whole series of bilateral agreements on wastes with new trading partners. Now we have the Basel Convention to solve that paperwork headache for us."
Under the old constitution, South Africa used to accede to conventions without recording any small print or reservations. These international conventions were not recognised until they were written into law and passed by parliament. It was in writing the law that the magic of fine-print modification was done. The new constitution is different, with any South African accession to international conventions automatically becoming law.
The South African fine print on the convention leaves a number of apparent loopholes which would allow Thor Chemicals legally to continue indefinitely the importation of toxic wastes. This loophole emanates from the gold mining industry. South Africa does not possess the technology to recover the gold lost to the linings and bricks of foundries. At the end of their lifespan, these bricks and linings are exported as waste to Europe for recycling to retrieve the gold.
From December 1997, the Basel Convention prohibits the export of toxic wastes even for recycling purposes. According to Scott, this is the reason the government has made reservations which will allow it to continue to import and export toxic waste materials for recycling.
There is no need to worry, the assistant director of pollution control in the Department of Environment Affairs says: Thor Chemicals "has never imported toxic wastes". This claim ignores the fact that a consignment "spent mercury fluoride" classified by US environmental authorities as toxic waste was due to arrive in Durban in mid-February to be "recycled" at Thor's Cato Ridge plant. Pressure by South African and US environmentalists forced the chemicals to be returned to the US.
At least 147 tonnes of similar chemical waste were imported by Thor in 1993. Thor chemicals has a stockpile of at least 4000 barrels of imported toxic waste on its premises.
[Chris Albertyn is a prominent activist in Earthlife Africa and the Environmental Justice Networking Forum.]