Issued by the Ministry of Water Affairs and Forestry
8 June 2000
I would like to address myself to a matter which is of grave concern to me. My purpose in addressing this issue is to draw the attention of the public at large to our joint responsibilities to ensure that an incident of this nature should never recur.
There has recently been media coverage pertaining to serious pollution that has occurred as a result of the ISCOR operations in Vanderbijlpark. The pollution emanating from the operation has rendered a substantial area unfit for human habitation and I have learnt that all efforts to resolve this matter, from as far back as 1997, have not resulted in a just and equitable solution.
ISCOR has agreed to rehabilitate the polluted area, and a programme of action has been established that will cost millions of rand to implement. To do this however, it must gain access to the affected land. Existing residents, whose lives have already been severely disrupted, will have to move.
The problem is thus not a unidimensional one. My responsibility as Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry is to use the powers vested in me to ensure that pollution of our water resources is prevented and in the unfortunate event that pollution does occur to ensure that appropriate remedial action is taken by the polluter. The public have a constitutional enshrined right to a safe and healthy living environment and the wilful disregard of the impact of pollution on present and future generations cannot be tolerated.
In the case at hand the consequences of the pollution extend to the owners of property and the occupiers of land in the area. In other words those who live and work in the area, residing on the property of those who own land. These people have had to rely on water tankers to provide potable water, on which life depends, for the last three years. Productive activity, be it livestock farming or crop farming in the area, cannot continue given the toxicity of the soil and water in the area. The entire area has to be vacated in order to rehabilitate it, which will entail physical removal and replacement of the top soil.
My moral responsibility therefore is also to ensure that the community in the area, which is effectively faced with a new form of forced removal, is compensated in a fair and equitable manner. Regrettably the destruction of a community and the loss of community infrastructure such as churches and community halls are irreplaceable.
It is against this background that I have taken personal responsibility for finalising this matter with all parties. My approach is one of ensuring that the affected area is clearly demarcated and that owners and occupiers of land are fairly compensated for their losses.
To enable this to happen the full and unqualified support of all parties is required and I have had a number of meetings in this regard. Most recently I met with representatives of ISCOR, representatives of owners and occupiers, and representatives of provincial and local government, together with my personal representative. The latter has been instructed to facilitate agreement on all outstanding matters before the end of this month. This approach is underpinned by a philosophy of public private partnerships to achieve solutions that avoid the use of litigation to compel co-operation of transgressors of the law.
In this spirit I trust that ISCOR will indeed fulfil its moral obligations to owners of property in the area and to those who are indeed more vulnerable - those who work and live in the area residing on property that they do not own.
I would like in future to see co-operation in resolving social problems of this nature that cannot be analysed in terms of a narrow interpretation of a functional responsibility for Water Affairs. In this spirit I also appeal to the public to take joint responsibility for placing such problems in the public arena and exercising their right and responsibility to safeguard our precious natural resources.