Eddie Koch
The Department of Environment Affairs is being pressed by the Australian government to help weaken a proposed international ban on shipments of hazardous materials from industrialised to non-industrialised countries.
The department has already been rocked by news that its consultants have allowed consignments of hazardous waste into the country, despite an official prohibition on toxic imports.
Confidential documents leaked to the Mail and Guardian show that an Australian delegation recently visited South Africa and met with officials in the departments of Foreign Affairs and Environment Affairs. Their mission was to discuss plans by member states of the Basel Convention to ban all movement of hazardous industrial wastes from OECD (industrialised) to non- OECD (industrialised) countries.
A report from the Australian delegation indicates their government is keen to establish support from South Africa for an initiative to weaken African support for the Basel ban.
“We raised general issues in relation to the Basel Convention, in particular the ban decision. We said there should be no presumption that Australia would waive its General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (Gatt) rights (of free trade) as a result of membership of the Basel Convention,” says the memorandum.
“We raised whether South Africa might be willing to play a regional role in raising awareness of Basel issues among African countries in the lead up to the third conference of parties (states which have agreed to adhere to the Basel convention) in September … South African officials said they understood South Africa might be able to play an awareness-raising and general co-ordinating role within Africa. They said they would consider the idea further.”
The Australian Financial Review reported this month that the Australian government is preparing to reverse its support for the proposed ban. Greenpeace officials say Australian officials have also held talks with Malaysian and Indian officials ahead of next month’s meeting in an effort to win support from some developing countries for resistance to a total ban.
Australia’s trade in hazardous materials is worth about R525-million a year.
The Basel convention is an international agreement that places controls on the movement of toxic and hazardous waste around the world. However, it has been criticised for not being tough enough. A meeting of member states, due to be held this month, is expected to come under strong pressure to include in the agreement a clause that prohibits all north-south movement of wastes from the end of 1997.
Chris Albertyn, representative of green pressure group Earthlife Africa, told the M&G his organisation has evidence that an Australian official had been seconded on a full-time basis to the Department of Foreign Affairs to help work on South Africa’s waste import policy. Albertyn added that this official had pressured the Department of Environment Affairs not to allow non- government groups into the delegation that will attend the Basel meeting this month.
A foreign affairs spokesman confirmed that an Australian diplomat is working in Pretoria, but he denied that South Africa would allow its foreign policy to be decided by foreign countries.
It is also clear that the United States government has identified South Africa as a strategic country in terms of African decisions about the toxic waste issue.
Another secret document obtained by the M&G — this one a report from the US embassy in Pretoria to the State Department in Washington — suggests recent controversies in South Africa over toxic waste could have negative consequences for US interests.
Massive shipments of mercury waste have come into South Africa from the US over the past few years, ostensibly for recycling purposes, and have caused serious ecological damage around the Thor Chemicals KwaZulu-Natal recycling plant.
Last week, the government turned back a ship filled with 500 tons of cupric arsenate from Finland. A US document reveals that this waste was created by US- based industries and shipped to Finland for recycling a few years ago.
“In another development, the Environmental Justice Networking Forum (EJNF), has announced that toxic-waste shipments are reaching South Africa without the government’s knowledge. As a result, it will lead a private investigation to track such shipments,” says the US embassy document. “The EJNF is a forum of approximately 180 South African non-governmental organisations (NGOs) … The forum is unpopular among government circles because of its combative nature.”
Deputy Environment Minister Bantu Holomisa last week announced an independent commission will investigate the toxic-waste scandal that has rocked his ministry and department.