DURBAN - THE IFP, DA and the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA) have called for eThekwini Municipality and the Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs to be held accountable for failing to detect that United Phosphorus Limited (UPL) was running an illegal operation.
This comes after the release of a joint preliminary investigation into the compliance profile report of UPL by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, which found that UPL did not have the environmental authorisation, nor did it obtain a critical risk assessment or planning permission, to operate.
IFP spokesperson on Environmental Affairs, Forestry and Fisheries Narend Singh said there was no reference to the oversight responsibility of the municipality and the provincial department in terms of them not allowing UPL to start operating in the first place.
He questioned the monitoring and oversight as well as the checks and balances.
“Now that this has happened, they are holding the company responsible, which they should do to some extent, but they cannot absolve themselves as the authors of the report from any either criminal or other liability in allowing this industry or operation to start under their noses,” Singh said.
“The blame has to be shared and criminal and other action need to be taken even against the municipal authority and the provincial department of the environment.”
He added that they were surprised that the report was made public before it was released to the national portfolio committee on environment, forestry and fisheries, since they had conducted an oversight visit and raised a number of issues.
DA shadow minister of Environmental Affairs, Forestry and Fisheries, Dave Bryant said: “The report has confirmed what the DA has suspected all along, that the local and provincial ANC-led governments in KwaZulu-Natal failed to ensure that the correct checks and balances were in place for toxic chemicals to be stored in an environmentally sensitive area. The report confirms that UPL had not obtained requisite environmental authorisation or planning permission for the facility to operate.”
Bryant also questioned how the facility was able to operate unchecked by local ANC-led authorities and why they chose to look the other way.
Desmond D’Sa of SDCEA said he was disappointed that the ministry and local government were unaware that there was illegal activity under their watch – as well as that of Environmental Affairs Minister Barbara Creecy, MEC Ravi Pillay and mayor Mxolisi Kaunda.
“No finger has been pointed at any official on any corruption that would have occurred for an illegal business with so many dangerous toxic chemicals such as arsenic, pesticides and a whole stack of chemicals that were there,” D’Sa said.
“Government officials did not play an oversight role and that is a major concern for us.”
GroundWork environmental health campaigner Rico Euripidou said the report confirmed that UPL and the company that leased the warehouse to UPL broke the law, and the facility was 100% inadequate to undertake such business.
Euripidou said that even if there had been no riots, civil unrest or fire, UPL broke the law because they did not have the right licences and if they had the right licences, they would have been required to consult with the public.
“All of this could have been avoided had UPL followed the requirements of the law, had undertaken an environmental impact assessment, had the proper environmental licences in order to store those huge amounts of chemicals …”
He said if UPL had followed the law, the facility would have been licensed as a major hazardous installation.
The portfolio committee and national department had not commented by the time of publication.
Daily News