Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork
Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork
Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork
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Chapter 4: The toxic cradle of production• mining companies’ Black Economic Empowerment obligations include equityparticipation and/or community royalties for historically disadvantagedcommunities in mining areas. [2008: 13]The villagers have actively resisted <strong>the</strong> enclosure of <strong>the</strong>ir resources. They have ploughed<strong>the</strong> land to establish active ownership, and protested on many occasions – for which<strong>the</strong>y have been arrested and jailed. They have enlisted <strong>the</strong> help of environmental justicelawyer, Richard Spoor, and worked with <strong>the</strong> social movement Jubilee, groundWorkand <strong>the</strong> Vaal Environmental Justice Alliance (VEJA) as well as <strong>the</strong> international socialjustice organisation Actionaid. Ironically, <strong>the</strong>ir best hope lies in <strong>the</strong> falling demand forand falling prices of platinum as <strong>the</strong> commodity boom is reined in by <strong>the</strong> prospect ofglobal recession.Steeling <strong>the</strong> futureIndustrial processes are far more complicated and, in some respects, even more toxicthan mining. Industrial waste is often hidden from public view, being dumped inheaps or ponds on site at <strong>the</strong> factory and with little regulatory oversight, or illegallyflushed down drains or dumped elsewhere. One toxic waste dump that did attractpublic attention is ArcelorMittal’s (formerly Iscor) slag heap at Vanderbijlpark becauseof <strong>the</strong> role it played in <strong>the</strong> destruction of <strong>the</strong> Steel Valley farming community. Itsneighbours, from Jan Tromp in <strong>the</strong> 1980s to Strike Matsepe in <strong>the</strong> 2000s, were drivenout or driven under by <strong>the</strong> pollution of <strong>the</strong> groundwater, of floodwater run-off and of<strong>the</strong> dust blown off <strong>the</strong> heap. 70The Vanderbijlpark Steel plant produces 2.2 million tonnes of solid waste every year.One million tonnes of this is hazardous, containing inorganic contaminants which leakinto <strong>the</strong> groundwater: manganese, aluminium, cadmium, calcium, chloride, fluorides,iron, sulphates, titanium and zinc. Various organic 71 substances, mainly derived fromcoal tars, pose an additional toxicity threat. Most of <strong>the</strong>se materials are found in <strong>the</strong>solid waste dumps, <strong>the</strong> evaporation dams and maturation ponds.70 See The groundWork Report 2006.71 In chemistry, ‘organic’ refers to compounds containing carbon. These are found in living organisms, as well as<strong>the</strong> hydrocarbons that make up fossil fuels and are used as <strong>the</strong> building blocks of plastics.- 98 - groundWork - <strong>Wasting</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Nation</strong>