• Up to 3,000t of toxic sludge remains piled up in fire-blackened warehouses in KwaZulu-Natal, a grim monument to the apparent powerlessness of SA's environmental guardians to hold multinational companies accountable for industrial waste legacies.
Stored on a hillside that tumbles down to the Inanda valley and Durban's largest water storage dam, the stockpile of brain-poisoning mercury waste has been here for more than 30 years while government officials dither, argue or exchange technical and legal missives with representatives of the UK-based chemical company Thor.
In the KwaXimba community near the town of Cato Ridge, families blame the company for the death or lingering illness of company workers in the early 1990s.
In a toxic waste saga that has bubbled on for decades, Thor has received public attention again in recent weeks after a midnight fire destroyed part of the stockpile, culminating in a statement from the government suggesting that the scandal may be reaching a conclusion.
But Bobby Peek, director of the environmental justice group groundWork, remains sceptical of these assurances after spending decades pressing the government to clean up the mess.
The fire started soon after midnight on August 25, just 16 days after newly appointed environmental affairs, forestry & fisheries minister Barbara Creecy visited Cato Ridge to inform site managers that her department plans to issue a cleanup directive to Thor UK. Creecy's officials have previously estimated that the final cleanup could cost about R300m.
Thor chair Desmond Cowley and his management team have not responded to repeated media queries since the fire, but Creecy announced on November 11 that: "Following engagements with Thor Chemicals, the company has provided the department with a final commitment to remove and dispose of the waste at their own cost.
Unless we have a
clear plan of action
in the public
domain, all this is
meaningless.
"The time frames for commencement of the removal of the waste are being finalised as part of the total care programme that will be implemented. Because Thor is appointing the service providers to remove the waste and implement this programme, any queries related to final costs should be directed to Thor."
Peek, who has been pressing the government for three decades to clean up the mess, said he was disappointed with the minister's "weak statement", which lacks details on final costs, time frames or compensation for workers and their families.
"Unless we have a clear plan of action in the public domain, all this is meaningless. We have heard it all before." Peek said there appeared to be resistance by authorities to meet and update communities in person about what is happening.
"If — and only if — the waste does leave our shores, then we can say that it sets a global precedent around toxic waste, and minister Creecy should be commended for this. But to date, the Thor case has showed us the complete opposite. Environmental justice is the last thing on the government's agenda."
In Peek's view, the government still lacks sufficient administrative power and personnel to hold companies accountable for toxic waste legacies nationwide
The estimated cost to finally clean up toxic waste at Thor Chemicals in KwaZulu-Natal
— R300m
"As with many other environmental issues, government is fighting fires and only moves when people protest and raise these issues in the media."
Regarding the recent Thor fire, Peek said officials initially indicated they were investigating a case of arson, but since then there has been no feedback.
"When we met with the department's Green Scorpions investigators the week after the fire, the general consensus was that most of the mercury remained on the site . The idea was it would have to be repackaged. However, we have not had any formal communication from the Green Scorpions investigators since then."
The lesson to be learnt from the Thor saga, he said, is that hazardous waste is not an issue that can be wished away.
"If you do not deal with it meaningfully it will come back to bite you . The same pattern is repeating itself with acid mine drainage in Gauteng and Mpumalanga. The same pattern can be seen with Eskom slimes and sludge dams and at numerous industrial sites across the country."
How it happened ...
• In 1988, Natal Parks Board scientist Angelo Lambiris findsdeformed tadpoles with high mercury levels close to the Thor factory.
• In the early 1990s in Cato Ridge, several Thor workers, including Peter Cele, Engelbert Ngcobo, Frank Shange and Felix Mhlanga, are admitted to hospital, where they die. A series of civil actions begins as families seek compensation from Thor in the UK. Some workers receive out-of-court settlements. In SA, culpable homicide charges against Thor managers are dropped. The company pleads guilty to factory safety violations and pays a R13,500 fine.
• In 1995, then president Nelson Mandela appoints a commission of inquiry into Thor, chaired by judge Dennis Davis, to investigate the origin of the mercury-waste stockpile and to recommend how to deal with it.
• In 1997, Davis's report shows Thor received waste from AECI, Borden Chemicals, Calgon and American Cyanamid (US), Thor (UK) and other companies in Europe, South America, the Middle East and Indonesia.
Evidence presented to the inquiry shows supervisors were not adequately skilled. Davis concludes that "it must have been clear to any reasonable person" that imported waste could not be treated safely at Thor.
Government regulators had also "grossly mishandled" the emerging crisis and in 1994, when government inspectors visited the factory, they found mercury leaking out of storage drums to beneath the concrete floor, permeating the soil to at least a metre.
The final upshot of the inquiry is that Thor should pay to dispose of the waste safely. The government will cover incidental expenses.
• But Thor - facing compensation claims from workers in UK courts — begins to alter its corporate shape. A new company, Tato Holdings, emerges in the UK. Thor Chemicals ceases to exist in name in SA after new entities emerge, such as Metallica, Guernica and Acti-Chem.
• More than 20 years after Davis called for a speedy resolution of the waste scandal, very little has happened - amid indications that mercury pollution continues to seep slowly towards Inanda Dam, either from previous or continuing leaks from the Thor stockpile and outdoor sludge dams.
• During 2015, media reports say some of Thor's mercury waste has been moved to Gauteng, but was destroyed in a fire that gutted the A-Thermal incineration plant in Olifantsfontein.
• In 2019, another fire breaks out in the heart of the Cato Ridge stockpile.
