A Cabinet decision to keep a toxic-waste investigation in-house has made green organisations see red, writes Eddie Koch
A COALITION of green organisations plans to take President Nelson Mandela to court because of his Cabinet’s decision to overturn Parliament’s call for an independent inquiry into recent toxic-waste scandals.
The Environmental Justice Networking Forum (EJNF), made up of more than 150 organisations, is enraged because the president’s office has failed to provide its members with reasons for holding only an in-house probe — even though Parliament had earlier called for an independent inquiry.
The controversy revolves around evidence that private consultants with big business links had obtained administrative powers to bring a large cargo of cupric arsenide waste from Finland into the country last
Before the Cabinet made its controversial decision last week, the House of Assembly’s portfolio committee for environmental issues, chaired by MP Peter Mokaba, called for a wide-ranging inquiry that would probe all recent shipments of hazardous waste into the country and the role that consultants have played in handling these matters.
A statement from the EJNF says the organisation is up in arms because the president’s office has refused to provide reasons for overturning the call from Parliament — and they claim Mandela’s officials are obliged to do so in terms of “administrative justice” clauses in the constitution that allow interested parties to demand reasons for executive acts that affect their members.
“We have instructed the Legal Resources Centre on this matter. They will take all necessary steps to secure a statement of reasons (from the president’s office),” says a statement from the EJNF. “If these reasons do not justify the Cabinet’s decision then we will have grounds to set aside the decision and reinstitute the commission of inquiry.”
Comment from Jakes Gerwel, Director General in the Office of the President, was not available at the time of going to press because he was in consultation with
The call for an independent probe was supported by all the major parties in Parliament, including the Conservative Party and the African National Congress. Deputy Environment Minister Bantu Holomisa initiated it and later Minister Dawie de Villiers assured concerned MPs during debate in the House that “it will not be a departmental investigation but an independent inquiry”. However, after discussion in the Cabinet it was decided that an in-house investigation would be held. De Villiers’ ministry’s press statements say this was because the bigger and more independent inquiry would have been too expensive.
The in-house inquiry approved by Cabinet has been tasked to examine only one shipment of cupric arsenide that was sent back to Finland after the EJNF discovered it was en route to South Africa. Subsequent investigations revealed that a private group of consultants, Daan Malan and Associates, had arranged on official letterheads from the Department of Environment Affairs to import the waste.
The EJNF says: “The key issue in this toxic waste shipment scandal is determining how a private consultant could sign a permit on the government’s behalf supposedly without the government’s knowledge. We maintain that the rampant use of industry-affiliated consultants to make government policy explains this scandal and will result in many more to come.”
The EJNF claims that the consultants working for government departments have “close connections to major industrial polluters” and believes their role in shaping the country’s environment policies is a major cause for concern.
EJNF spokesman Chris Albertyn said Daan Malan had also been part of a team of consultants who helped draft Water and Forestry Minister Kader Asmal’s official policy on the management and storage of hazardous wastes that are produced inside the country.
Asmal responded by saying that the team of consultants who drafted his ministry’s policy, which has nothing to do with toxic-waste imports, had been appointed before last year’s elections. However, he insisted the policy was an excellent one and had received widespread commendation from abroad.
Asmal rejected as “patronising” any suggestions that his ministry had been duped by its consultants but added he had issued instructions for the use of consultants to be minimised in the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry.
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