Environmental activist group Earthlife Africa yesterday accused the Department of Minerals and Energy of having a public participation process designed to "delay and distort" public engagement around the country's radioactive waste policy.

Said spokesperson Sibusiso Mimi: "The department recently released a draft radioactive waste policy.

"This is the first that South Africans are getting a say on an issue which will affect people for seven million years to come.

"Earthlife Africa Cape Town believes that the policy process has been designed to exclude and distort public participation".

According to Mimi the department had designed a limited form of public participation which failed to adhere to government's own National Environmental Management Act.

Tracing what he said was the department's lack of engagement with the broader public, Mimi explained that an advertisement for one of four public meetings held on October 14 was only advertised in a local newspaper, which did not reach all affected communities.

"From the onset we observed flaws that made the whole process very difficult, especially for the community organisations," said Mimi, adding that attempts to get Xhosa and Afrikaans translations of policy documents from the department proved futile.

Another area where there seemed to be an attempt to stymie public participation was the choice of venue and lack of transport, as well as the use of jargon at the meeting.

"The venues were made very difficult to access via public transport and very far from the people and again in this case the Department of Minerals and Energy failed to deliver.

The Cape Town meeting was held at Duynefontein at the Koeberg Club, very convenient for nuclear proponents but unheard of by anyone else," Mimi said.

According to Mimi the lack of a proper participation process had particular relevance to the proposed Pebble-Bed Modular Reactor, because if this approved project was built it would produce high volumes of radioactive waste.

He argued that if a waste management policy were to be put in place rapidly, it would make it easier for those in favour of PBMR technology to convince the authorities to give the go-ahead for the development. The record of decision from the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism has made a waste management policy one of the conditions for giving the development the green light.

But the Department of Minerals and Energy's nuclear energy director denied that they were trying to scupper public participation.

Doctor Schalk de Waal said the advertisement was widely placed in all leading newspapers at the end of August and early September, with "millions" of people able to read them.

"The DME has also extended the deadline for written response to December 31, 2003 and in this time translated versions will be distributed and placed on the DME website," he said.

De Waal said prohibitive costs meant that the policy would only be translated into the major languages spoken near the proposed site, while limited resources meant it was impossible to provide transport to all communities.

"DME feels that the public meetings were held in accessible venues.

The presentations were simplified and it is noted that although ELA attended all the meetings they did not ask us to explain any of the terms," De Waal said. – Sapa.