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Pollution-intensive planning a source of endless conflict
Patrick Bond (Eye on Civil Society) 2 August 2012
A conference about non-violent social change, “From roots to fruits”, hosted by Ela Gandhi at the Durban University of Technology, will be officially opened tonight by Mayor James Nxumalo and Premier Zweli Mkhize.
The leadership should stick around, to learn cutting-edge strategies and protest tactics, for in coming months, they will be badgered by South Africa’s premier eco-social advocacy group, the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA). (Disclosure: as a Bluff resident, I’m a loyal lay member.)
The coming conflicts reflect the legacy of Mike Sutcliffe’s R250 billion Back of Ports strategy for South Durban, unveiled last month. As city manager from 2002-11, Sutcliffe downplayed countless episodes of explosions and pollution in Africa’s largest petro-chemical complex, let truckers run roughshod over residents, ignored blatant zoning violations, proposed a new highway cutting through Clairwood, refused to issue an emergency evacuation plan in the event of a Bhopal-type disaster, and even attacked SDCEA because of what he claimed was agenda-setting by international donors.
Now, after years of systematic abuse against the area’s mainly black, working-class neighbourhoods, South Durban will degenerate further thanks to the inherited plan.
Hundreds of thousands of residents from the Port area – Umbilo, Clairwood and the Bluff –southwards to Wentworth, Merebank and Umlazi are learning of an awful fate Sutcliffe neglected to discuss with us when he was in charge: our reputation as the country’s chemical-stinking armpit is about to multiply in intensity.
Beyond extreme cases – e.g. methanethiol ‘cats-wee’ emissions by FFS Refiners – recall the ongoing poisoning by petro-chemical firms that give Merewent’s Settlers Primary the worst case of asthma recorded in any school in the world, affecting more than half the learners, not to mention child leukemia rates twenty-four times higher than the national average.
Officials now making redevelopment presentations in community halls concede enormous failings under Sutcliffe’s management: “underutilisation of rail”; “air pollution increases particularly in the South Durban Basin”; and “large portions of Clairwood are being utilised illegally for business and logistics purposes, even though zoned residential.”
Yet everything Sutcliffe intended for South Durban will make matters worse. Historic Clairwood’s “central residential core [is] recommended to be rezoned from special residential to logistics” – creating thousands of displacees – along with the forced removal of the beloved Housewives Fresh Produce Market. In Umbilo and Merewent, “The existing noxious and general industrial zones will be permitted to continue in their present format,” say officials.
And although Durban hosted the United Nations climate summit last December, the two words ‘climate change’ cannot be found in Sutcliffe’s plan, which will massively expand ships’ bunker-fuel consumption thanks to port expansion from 2.5 to 16 million containers per year, and radically increase road-freight and petrochemical greenhouse gas emissions.
After fruitlessly asking municipal consultants at the Congella public meeting last Thursday, my subsequent efforts to get even a simple email explanation from three City Hall sources and EnviroConsult manager Jon Marshall about this revealing oversight came to naught. Rising seawater levels will wreck South Durban’s infrastructure – as anyone witnessing that March 2007 storm can testify – yet that threat too is entirely ignored in the plan’s summary document, prepared by Graham Muller Associates.
I blame Sutcliffe for the municipality’s culture of extreme environmental ignorance, social destructiveness and unaccountability. Now that he is in disrepute, there is no better time to request a democratic rethink of the Back of Port.
Last week, Sutcliffe wrote to the Times newspaper with outlandish claims about a supposedly ‘magnificent’ rating by Auditor-General Terence Nombembe in the 2010-11 financial audits. In reality, there were five KZN municipalities with clean audits – Umzinyathi, eMadlageni, Richmond, Umdoni, and Umtshezi – but not eThekwini. Nombembe nailed Sutcliffe for 28 cases of ‘unfair or uncompetitive procurement practices’ costing the city R1.2 billion.
According to his successor, Sibusiso Sithole (whom Sutcliffe is suing for character defamation), “The tabling of the Manase Report into allegations of maladministration, fraud and corruption have raised alarm bells” – and Sutcliffe was accused of failing to report blatant fraud. Remarked Sithole, “It will take bold actions to undo the damage that this has had on the City.”
Bold actions such as reworking the Back of Port plan should be mindful of alternative visions for the South Durban Basin, such as those promoted by SDCEA, local farmers south of the old airport and the Occupy Umlazi initiative who are demanding land for housing nearby.
Today at a public UKZN Centre for Civil Society seminar at 12:30, two of Ela Gandhi’s main guests – Matt Meyer from New York’s International Peace Research Association and sociologist Elavie Ndura from Burundi (coeditors of the book Seeds of New Hope) – consider “the construction of grassroots movements for sustainable peace and justice in violence-prone South Africa and the Great Lakes Region.”
The tips they provide South Durban activists will be invaluable for reversing a plan that gives polluters superprofits while, quite literally, killing the citizenry.
Izinhlelo eziholela ekutheni kungcole kakhulu umoya kungumnyombo wodweshu olungeke luphele
Patrick Bond (Eye on Society, Mercury) 2 August 2012 Yahunyushwa nguFaith ka-Manzi
Ingqungquthela ebimayelana nokuza koshintsho ngaphandle kokusetshenziswa kodlame, “Kusukela ezimpandeni kua ezithelweni”, ihlelwe nguEla Ghandi esikhungweni semfundo ephakeme eDurban University of Technology, izovulwa ngokomthetho ebusuku banamhlanje nguSobaba womkhandlu waseThekwini uMayor James Nxumalo kanye noNdunankulu wesifundazwe saKwaZulu-Natal uZweli Mkhize.
Ubuholi kufanele buhlale bulindele, bufunde izindlela ezinesasasa zokubhikisha, ngoba ezinyangeni ezizayo, inhlangano yeningizimu neTheku elwela ubulungiswa ngokukngcoliswa komoya iSouth Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA) izobe iqhubeka nezinhlelo zayo. (Sengiphumela obala: njengesakhamizi saseBluff, nami ngiyilunga lalenhlangano elithembekile).
Loludweshu oluzayo likhombisa umlando oshiywe ngemuva uMike Sutcliffe wohlelo lokwakhiwa kweChweba Langemuva (Back of Port) okuzodla izindlodla zamarandi ezigijima kuR250 billion Back of Ports strategy eNingizimu neTheku, okuthulwe ngenyanga edlule. Njengomphathi weTheku kusukela kunyaka ka200 kuya ku2011, uSutcliffe akazange asukumele phezulu iziqubu eziningi zokuqubuka komlilo kanye nokungcoliswa komoya kwisizinda esikhulukazi samafutha eAfrika, wavumela abamatrukhi ukuthi basebenzise imigwaqo yezakhamizi, waziba ukuhambisana nomthetho nezindawo okufanele lezizithuthi zihambe khona, wathi kufanele kwenziwe uthelawayeka ozonqamula eClairwood, wanqabela ukuthi kubekhona icebo elikhona lokuthutha abantu uma ngase kwezenke isibhicongo esithi asifane nesaseBhopal, futhi wahlasela ISDCEA ngoba ethi akwenzayo kwakunguhlelo labatshali bezimali bamazwe angaphandle.
Manje emva kokuhlukunyezwa okuhleliwe kulendawo ehlala ikakhulukazi abantu abamnyama abangabasebenzi, iNingizimu neTheku izoqhubeka ekubeni esimweni esibi ngenxa yohlelo okuthiwa luthathwe kuyena.
Amakhulu ezakhamizi eziqhamuka kulendawo yeChweba – eMbilo, eClairwood kanye naseBluff – kuyela eningizimu neWentworth, uMlazi kanye neMerebank bafunda ngalesisimo nguSutcliffe anagazange asixoxisane nathi ngekathi esaphethe: ukwaziwa kabi kwendawo yethu njengekhwapha elinuka kabi ngamakhemikhali kuzoqhubekela phambili kakhulu.
Ngale kwezimo ezimbi kakhulu isibonelo-njengemethanethiol ‘enukisa okomchamo wekati’ ephafuzwa yiFFS Refiners – sikhumbula ukuqhubeka kukaphoyizeni ophafuzwa ngamakhemikhali alezizimboni ezenza ukuthi abantwana abafunda eSettlers Primary School baphathwe isifo sofuba kakhulu kuzozonke izikole emhlabeni wonke, cishe ngaphezulu kwengxenye yonke yabafundi, singasabali umdlavuza weleukemia nawo osabaelele kakhulu cisho izikhathi ezingamashumi amabili nane esibalweni sezwelonke.
Izikhulu manje ezimatasatasa nokuzoxoxisana nomphakathi ngezinhlelo zokuthuthukisa kabusha kukhombisa ukuhluleka okukhulu ngaphansi kokulawula kukaSutcliffe: “ukungasetshenziswa ngokwanele kukajantshi”, “ukungcoliswa komoya kuyenyuka kakkhulu ikakhulukazi kwiBasin yeNingizimu neTheku”, futhi izingxenye ezinkulu zeClairwood zisetshenziswa ngokungemthetho ngezamabhizinisi, noma ngabe kwaziwa ukuthi izindawo ezihlala umphakathi.”
Sizoqhubeka sishube kakhulu isimo saseNingizimu neTheku kukho konke okwakuqondwe nguSutcliffe ngalendawo. Abahlali abadala abanomlando maphakathi neClairwood kuthiwa abasuke esindaweni zabo okuzodala odingasithebeni abaningi – kanye nalabo abasuswa ngandluzula njengeMakethe Yabesifazane Yemifino (phecelezi Housewives Fresh Produce Market). Embilo kanye naseMerewent, “Lezizindawo ezikhona izikhiqiza ububi emoyeni ezindaweni zezimboni zizovunyelwa ukuthi ziqhubeke ngalendlela ezenza ngayo njengamanje,”, kusho oyisikhulu.
Noma-ke iTheku kwakuyilona eliyindawo lapho kwahlanganyela khona ingqungquthela Yamazwe Abumbena mayelana nesimo sokushintsha kwezulu ngonyaka odlule ngoDisemba amagama amabili ‘ukushintsha kwezulu’
awatholakalanga ezinhlelweni zikaSutcliffe, okuzokwandisa imikhumbi esebenzisa kakhulu amafutha futhi lokho kungumphumela wokwandiswa kwechweba kusukela ekumumatheni amakhontayina angu2.5 kuya ku16 wezigidi, futhi lokhu kwenyuse ukusetshenziswa kwezokuthutha ezisebenzisa umgwaqo futhi kwande ukuphafuza kwezisisisi ezingcolisayo emoyeni eziqhamuka kumakhemikhali akhiwa ngamafutha.
Ema kokubuza izihambeli zikamasipala okungabanga namphumela emhlangweni womphakathi owawuseCongella ngoLwesine olwedlule, imizamo yami elandelayo ukuthola nje noma incazelo encane kubantu abathile eCity Hall kanye nomphathi weEnviroConsult uJon Marshall mayelana nalolulwazi eselusobala akuzange kube namphumela. Ukunyuka kwamazinga amanzi asolwandle kuyobhidliza indawo yaseNingizimu neTheku – njengoba noma ubani owabona isichotho sika2007 engasho – kodwa lengozi engase yenzeke iyazitshwa lapho kukhulunywa ngokuphethwa kohlelo olusemqulwini, olungiswe yiGraham Muller Associates.
Ngiyamsola uSutcliffe ngesiko likamasipala lokuziba kakhulu ezihambisana nezemvelo, ukucekelwa ophansi kwezenhlalakahle, kanye nokungakwazi ukuvuma uma benze amaphutha. Manje njengoba esedume kabi, asikho isikhathi esihle esidlula lesi ukuthi ukuthi kucatshangwe kabusha ngendlela yentando yeningi mayelana neChweba Langemuva.
Ngesonto eledlule, uSutcliffe wabhalela iphephandaba iTimes ngehaba ‘ mayelana nendlela enhle kakhulu’ yokunconywa yiAuditor-General Terence Nombembe ekubalweni kwezimali kusukela kunyaka ka2010 kuyaku2011.
Eqinisweni abayisihlanu kuphela omasipala baKwaZulu-Natal abanomlando ohlanzekile kwezezimali – uMzinyathi, eMadlangeni, iRichmond, uMndoni kanye noMtshezi – kodwa hayi iTheku. UNombembe umbambile uSutcliffe ngokusolwa kwamaphathutha angu28 ‘ okungabikhona kobulungiswa kanye nezindlela zokunikwa kwabantu amathenda’ okwabiza idolobha u1.2 wezigidigidi.
Ngokusho komphathi omusha wedolobha, uSibusiso Sithole (uSutcliffe ombophele ukumhlawulisa ukuthi ageze igama lakhe), “Ukubekwa koMbiko kaManase mayelana nezinsolo zokungaphathi kahle, inkohlakalo kanye nokukhwabanisa kuyethusa” – futhi uSutcliffe usolelwa ukungabiko ngokukhwabanisa okusobala. Kusho uSithole, “Kuthothatha izenzo ezinesibindi ukulungiswa ukonakala okwenzekile ngenxa yalokhu kulelidolobha.”
Izenzo ezinesibindi njengokwenza kabusha uhlelo lwengemuva lechweba okufanele kuqashelwe imibono ehlukile ngeBasin yeNingizimu neTheku, njengalezo ezigqugquzekwa yiSDCEA, abalimi bendawo abaseningizimu nesikhumulo sezindiza esidala kanye nemzamo eokuThatha Umlazi, okungabantu abafuna umhlaba wezindlu eduze kwalendawo.
Namhlanje kwingxoxo yomphakathi ezoba eUKZN eCentre for Civil Society lingamenxe ihora leshumi nambili emini izimenywa ezimbili zikaEla Gandhi eziqavile – uMatt Meyer oqhamuka eInternational Peace Research Association eNeyw York kanye nochwepheshe kwezenhlalakahle uElavie Ndura waseBurundi (bobabili laba bangabahleli bencwadi ekuthiwa iImbewu yeThemba Elisha) phecelezi (Seeds of New Hope) – babheka “ukwakhiwa kwezinhlangano zemiphakathi zabantu abaphansi ukuze kube khona ukuthula okungapheli kanye nobulungiswa ezweni laseNingizimu Afrika elinodlame kanye nasemazweni aseGreat Lakes.”
Abasishuyela khona kuyonika izishoshovu zaseNingizimu neTheku okuyoba nosizo olukhulu ukubuyisela emuva uhlelo oluzokwenza izimboni ezingcolisa umoya ezenza inzuzo kakhulu ngenkathi, empeleni, zibulala izakhamizi.
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