Map 1. The location of South Durban Basin
5. Results and Discussion
5.4. Views from South Durban Basin local communities (households and
One of the local residents of South Durban Basin (Merebank) who is also a teacher in Settler School stated that “…I have stayed in this area for more than thirty five
MTRP2011 Page 59 years and I have been involved in a number of protests against pollution from industries…and I don’t want to lie, up until today I have seen no changes, people are getting sicker than ever before!” The senior resident of Merebank continued stating that she started feeling sick (coughing) in 2002 and she took it lightly because she thought it was just a normal flu, and when she went to clinic later in four months she discovered that she had tuberculosis. The anonymous resident blames government as she believes that government could be the only mediator in this situation of environmental pollution. She continued stating that “…it seems like the government is only concerned with what type of pollution is in this area and how it occurs than coming with solutions”, and she continued “…and I say this because I have read so many newspapers with headline stories about the South Durban Basin pollution, some of them even come from the government departments themselves but there is no solution”. The anonymous resident also stated that if it was not for her job (teaching) and if she had enough funds she would have left the area twenty years back. The resident has three children who are staying in Cape Town, but that does not stop her worry “… I was very happy when they moved to Cape Town in 1994.
However, I still worry every time they come home for holidays because I do not know how fast the industrial infections are”. Moreover, the first thing that the angry anonymous resident of South Durban Basin (Merebank) would do if she was in power would be to request for compensation from industries for all the families who are sick and those who have lost their members because of pollution and also shut down all the industries which are off no use, “… some of these industries really have no use to us as local communities”, and she continued saying “there are many people and youth who are unemployed…”. The angry resident states that the industries mostly employ people from outside the country e.g. Rwanda, Zimbabwe and Nigeria and leave them as local communities. The resident absolutely does not believe that this happens because the local communities lack skills, but “… it is because we always fight and protest against them (industries)…”
Furthermore, on the same school where the anonymous resident works as a teacher, it is stated by SDCEA findings (2003) that an independent medical study shows that learners at Settlers Primary School face asthma levels five times higher than normal because of polluting industry, and that this school has begun converting
MTRP2011 Page 60 a classroom into a sickbay to treat learners and staff suffering from asthma, wheezing and tight chests.
The reaction of most of these industries does not assist, rather, it makes the situation worse. Mondi is one of the big and old industries of South Durban Basin which tried to build an incinerator in response to complaints from communities and government.
The communities and SDCEA in particular were the first to protest against the building of incinerator as they believed it was going to worsen the situation and cause more pollution in the form of dioxin which causes cancer (Van der Merwe 2004). This was discovered after the SDCEA has hired an independent scientist who clearly stated that the proposed incinerator would lead to an increase in carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide as well as dioxins in the surrounding environment.
However, even after the harmful effects of the proposed incinerator had been discovered, Mondi was given permission by the government to continue building the incinerator. This was when most local communities in South Durban Basin finally lost faith in the government.
An old man (approximately 70 years) was also interviewed. He stated that as a senior citizen of South Africa and South Durban Basin (Isipingo) he knows his rights under the Constitution and he also knows that he cannot exercise them. The resident states: “I know the constitution as much as I know myself, and I know that I have a right to a purified place”. What this senior resident has realized is that neither the government nor industries recognize environmental rights but favor consuming rights. This seems to be true as “Sarah Allan from the Provincial Department of Agriculture and Environment signed a record of Decision which allows Mondi to go ahead with the incinerator”. The city Manager Mike Sutcliffe gave Mondi the thumbs up in 2002 rather than taking SDCEA‟s objections into account. The refusal of the authorities to refuse the incinerator, too many communities and SDCEA as an organization, led to the realization that it was not enough to government that Mondi was found to be the third biggest polluter in South Durban Basin, to be a factor in the decision to allow the incinerator (Scott, 2002).
MTRP2011 Page 61 Mrs. Kelly Nadioo (40) from Isipingo claims that even though she only worked for six months in Wentworth Hospital, she has a lot of information regarding the sicknesses caused by air pollution from South Durban Basin industries. She said that Asthma, cancer, breathing and chest problems and tuberculosis are the main infections that cause Wentworth hospital to be amongst the busiest health facilities in Durban. She lays blame on the government and says that the government should hand the matter over to the people to sort out the environmental pollution in South Durban Basin area. Mrs Kelly Nadioo believes that the situation can only change if the communities of South Durban Basin (as affected parties) play a role in decision making and the government only listen and regulate.
The last view on this research was from the SDCEA Chairman. He has been leading this organization for a number of years. Desmond D‟Sa argues that industries in other countries are many times cleaner than industries in Durban, e.g. Shell in Denmark is much cleaner than the plant in South Durban. Desmond is argues that industries must not wait for the South African government to develop new programmes when they already know how to clean up. He further stated that they want to work with industries. “We want them to put the necessary controls on their stacks, put the necessary controls on their valves, so they will quit emitting so much unnecessary pollution into the community".