Friday 14 December 2012

Oilwatch solidarity visit to Uganda - Fighting to keep the Oil in the Soil!

Siziwe Khanyile
                 Kaiso Tonya drama group
Six hours after leaving Entebbe and heading North West towards the Western Region of Uganda, we reach the lush, mountainous, green Rift Valley. We head to Kaiso Tonya in Hoima district where we are meeting with community people living a stone’s throw from Lake Albert.

We are welcomed by the Kaiso Tonya drama group who sing and dance as we arrive. The hall, a corrugated iron donation from the oil companies is hot but lively, already packed and abuzz with people from the very young to the elderly coming from Kaiso Tonya Village and some surrounding villages.

We are welcomed, and a discussion about the purpose of our solidarity visit is explained by our hosts the National Association of Professional Environmentalists (NAPE)/Oilwatch Uganda. We get to hear about the great work they are doing with their sustainability schools in the villages, and that the drama group is a result of this initiative. Without too much discussion, the drama group, clad in their NAPE/Oilwatch t-shirts and traditional fabric skirts and trousers make their way into the hall.

This group is clear that they are not just entertainers; they are community advocates, fighting for the protection of their communities against the oil companies. This is very clear as they present strong messages through their performances.  They communicate in a way that is both entertaining and educational.

For the next one hour, the drama group sings, dances, recites poetry in the native language and the audience responds with roars of laughter, clapping or murmuring as each scene is played out. After every scene, a discussion is held to allow the audience to participate – “what issues did the scene address and what are your thoughts on the issue?” was the question posed.  The responses demonstrated an understanding of the problems introduced by oil. The drama group did a sterling job of capturing these issues.

In the Buseruka sub-county of Hoima district, an area is earmarked for an oil refinery that is expected to soon begin construction. The area is 29 kmof virgin grazing land for cattle and goats, involves about 13 villages and proposes to displace about 8 000 people with what the community view as unfair compensation determined through an unfair consultation process. It is expected that the refinery will come with added infrastructures like a modern airport, petrochemical industries, waste management plants and houses for the refinery workers. The ministry of environment has made it impossible for the feasibility study of the refinery – charged at an amount of US$30 000 – to be viewed.

In the same Buseruka sub-county area a 9.0 MW mini hydroelectric power station has been built and transmission lines are now part of the landscape. The power station is located across the Wambabya River to supply the oil companies and labour camps with electricity while community remains in darkness. However, NAPE is promoting locally assembled low-cost solar lamps constructed from bamboo shells and wood in this community.

Currently, oil companies, including Irish multinational Tullow, Total and the Chinese National Oil Company have drilled 75 exploration oil wells. Three of these are off shore. 71 wells found oil and four are dry wells. Recently, one of the wells was drilled on a geological fault line and has been abandoned. Article 24 of Uganda’s Wildlife Act prohibits mining in protected areas; yet 90% of drilling is taking place in nature reserves and communities needing access to firewood from the game reserve where the oil wells are located are being denied access by patrolling soldiers.

With exploratory drilling taking place some 20km offshore, fisherfolk in Lake Albert complain that their catch of fish has reduced and that when there is active testing, they are prevented from fishing which directly affects their survival as real fears of future oil spills in the lake are a threat.

Through various scenes, the drama group communicated oil impacts, demonstrating a very good understanding of the issues and the problems with the system that facilitates oil development.
They expressed concerns about land grab and demolishing of houses for the construction of access road oil wells without adequate compensation.

Social issues such as the influx of men into the area leading to prostitutes coming from different parts of the country and beyond, fears of HIV infections, alcohol abuse, increased crime and concern about girls being enticed by money from oil workers have already begun to affect the once almost secluded community living peacefully fishing and stock farming along Lake Albert.

This was our second visit to the Rift Valley in two years. The experience this time around, however, was made far richer by the depth of the conversations with the communities and getting to hear their perspectives and actual experiences.

It will be sad to return in two years time. The pristine environment will be overtaken by the obvious signs of “development” and “growth” – displacement, poverty, lack of access to food and water, and state violence and oppression! Yet these communities must stand strong in resistance as they echo a worldwide call to Keep the Oil in the Soil

Tuesday 11 December 2012

Toxic waste scandal: Justice delayed is justice denied

Bobby Peek
“This case goes to the heart of the greed, neglect and the failure of accountability that is sparking uprisings across the country” (The Mail and Guardian. Leader. “Choked up.”  24 July 2009, p. 30).

The case in mention is not about housing, the fight for anti-retrovirals or clean water, decent education or affordable energy, all of which are hot topics in the recent politic of South Africa. Rather it is a case of environmental injustices visited upon the community by government failing to take urgent and meaningful action against Thermopower Process Technology (Thermopower), a toxic waste disposal company who imports toxic waste into South Africa, and whose clients are some of the ‘blue chip’ JSE traded companies namely Sasol, Monsanto, BASF and AngloGold Ashanti to name a few.  For good measure also include Eskom.  Interestingly, Thermopower’s website no longer functions so information on their customers and partners is difficult to come by.

While the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) are taking Thermopower to court, the KwaZulu Natal government ironically has agreed to send the historic mercurial toxic waste from Thor Chemicals in Cato Ridge outside Durban to Thermopower for disposal.   Both the Olifantsfontein community and groundWork has appealed this decision in vain.  To compound matters, Thermopower, Buhle Waste and Afrimedicals have all been linked to the shenanigans around the medical waste disposal tender in the Limpopo Province, in which Julius Malema of all people features.  What we are faced with here is a time bomb of epic proportions – a dysfunctional company under legal scrutiny with serious political connections running about expanding its business while its present business is under serious question.

Thermopower has had strong ANC political connection since the scandal broke years ago.  Alan Norman, known as the “ANC’s banker” and Smuts Ngonyama have all been linked to the wheeling and dealing around this toxic waste of saga.  This relationship has led to kowtowing by local ANC leadership when in a letter to the company the leadership responds with ‘greatest humility’ and welcomes the company’s ‘cooperation’ to engage on the local community.  This engagement however, is a distraction from the court case, which is yet to be finalised.

Thermopower been charged by the NPA and DEA for the following contraventions: (1) untreated and treated waste remaining on the site for a period of longer than the permitted (three months); (2) failure to dispose of some of the residue as legally required; (3) burying residue in one of the buildings on site; (4) disposing of residue in storm water drains; (5) storing waste in leaking containers not properly labelled and sealed; (6) treating healthcare risk waste and general waste together; (7) not submitting charge papers to the authorities; (8) not ensuring either that all residue generated in the treatment process was disposed of at a permitted hazardous waste landfill site on a regular basis or reclassified for delisting and disposal at a permissible disposable landfill site; (9) and not taking steps to ensure all floors were cleaned and disinfected.  Subsequent to these, additional charges have been submitted by the NPA, which at the time of writing groundWork has yet to see.

Despite these detailed charges, the case has yet again been postponed in court on 13 November for the sixth time. The magistrate in the case called for expert witnesses to give evidence.  This is bizarre considering that the original charges are uncomplicated charges, of which they are either guilty of or not. One of the reasons why the case has not been heard and finalised is because of the precedent set in the NPA’s case against Zuma, where he contested successfully his right to representation to the NPA before the case went to court.  Using this precedent, Thermopower has successfully bogged down the case outside the realm of the public scrutiny, and thus we may never know what the outcome of the case might be once it is dropped.   While South Africa’s environmental  legislation is advanced comparably, Thermopower is ‘able to hide behind complex legislative’ processes according to The Mail and Guardian, something which is common throughout South Africa when poor people deal with corporations abusing peoples’ rights and their environments.

Finally, in all these postponements, very little information is getting to the people who are affected on the ground.  But this delay and obfuscating of the issues is not new in South Africa.  This is the reality when the poor try and protect themselves from powerful corporate interest.  We are faced with the reality of the powerful nexus between the political elite and corporate wealth making for a beast of an animal that disregards our Bill of Rights and actively undermines it.

This appeared first in the December issue of Noseweek www.noseweek.co.za