One offshoot of the controversy surrounding Iscor’s proposed Saldanha mill is that the locals are finally being consulted, reports Rehana Rossouw
The good news about Iscor’s planned Saldanha steel mill is the emergence of real consultation and debate at grassroots level.
This was well illustrated last Friday when cabinet members and members of the Western Cape provincial legislature travelled to Saldanha Bay for an inspection of the site and to discuss the merits of the project with community leaders.
Water Affairs and Forestry Minister Kader Asmal, Environmental Affairs Deputy Minister Bantu Holomisa, Western Cape Provincial Planning MEC Lampie Fick and provincial Finance MEC Kobus Meiring promised after the visit that a decision on the mill would be taken by the end of July.
Asmal said it was important to meet residents and interest groups in Saldanha as the debate on the merits of the mill had to be extended to impoverished, marginalised and unheard communities.
“This is not a dialogue between experts and politicians. Experts must be on tap, not on top. Democracy means we have to put everything on the table systematically and comprehensively and engage in real debate,” he said.
Asmal said he was disappointed that there had been no “real engagement” on the steel mill debate, which had been limited to assertions and counter-assertions between experts.
The affected ministries had to take their decisions in the the interests of the local inhabitants of Saldanha Bay, the Western Cape province and the entire country, he said.
The official visit to Saldanha Bay began with a meeting between the ministers and representatives of the area’s local government structures. Iscor provided a helicopter to transport the ministers, their staff and the media from Cape Town and the bright yellow whirlybird hopped around the town all morning.
Saldanha mayor Ismail Nagardien and his councillors told the ministers that there were varying viewpoints on the steel mill project. Property owners were concerned that their investments would devalue, some residents were concerned that the mill would have an affect on the lifespan of Saldanha’s groundwater and unemployed residents were eager to see job opportunities created.
At the proposed site of the mill, the ministers shivered in the biting cold wind while they weighed up the beauty of the spot against the stacks which would rise up from the concrete walls of the steel plant.
The site is barely a kilometre away from Saldanha harbour, which is the end of the line for Spoornet’s 2,2km long trains bearing ore from Iscor’s Sishen iron mine. The dunes rising from the bay which will shield the lagoon from the eyesore of the plant are red with windborne ore carried from the harbour.
Clearly visible from the site are the Namakwa Sands processing plant, with two stacks at least 25m high, the harbour’s cranes and sheds and an oil tank farm.
Saldanha Steel managing director Bernard Smith and Iscor consultant William Roper answered queries from the ministers. Smith revealed that Iscor would replace the water cooling system it initially envisaged using at the plant with an atmospheric cooling system.
With the ore trains rattling past the site, Smith explained that the reason for having the mill so close to the harbour was to have easy access to the ore. The mill will process 1,7-million tons of ore annually and, if the plant were moved further inland, the raw materials would have be transported on a conveyor system or by road.
After the site visit, the officials gathered for lunch at a restaurant overlooking the harbour. The only activity visible through the restaurant’s picture windows was at the jetty, where ships were being loaded with ore for export. The jetty where fishing boats berth was deserted.
After lunch, Asmal was approached by Saldanha ANC official Maxwell Moss, who appealed to him to make a speedy decision on the mill, preferably a decision in favour of siting the mill in the town.
Asmal explained that his line function was limited to deciding whether to provide a water permit to Saldanha Steel, but said his department had already completed a considerable amount of work in its investigation of the effect of the mill on the area’s water supply.
Moss said he was grateful for the opportunity to discuss the plant with Asmal as the fishing community in Saldanha Bay had been virtually sidelined in the debate. They had been consulted by Iscor and the CSIR, which drew up an impact assessment on the mill, but did not know the names of the environmental groups opposing the project.