Iscor employees were told last year to destroy documents that might point to its polluting ground and runoff water in Vanderbijlpark, the newspaper Beeld reported on Friday.
In a ”top secret” e-mail sent to Iscor management staff at the Vanderbijlpark works by Dr Ockie Fourie, charged with developing a master plan for rehabilitation of the polluted area, Fourie said that only his consultant team would be allowed to possess such documents.
Fourie said the directive came from Iscor’s top management. All meeting notes and correspondence containing information about the master plan were also to be destroyed. Information on the plan should preferably be conveyed by word of mouth.
Fourie also said the laboratory that performed the water tests was not to keep any record of the results. All results were to be sent to him personally, ”preferably by hand”.
Iscor spokesperson Phaldie Kalam said the decision to destroy the documents was taken for security reasons, as a number of confidential documents had been stolen at the Vanderbijlpark plant.
The company was simply trying to limit the distribution of confidential documents.
Marius Keet, deputy director with the Department of Water Affairs, expressed his dismay when he was told of Iscor’s actions, said Beeld, indicating that he would be demanding answers.
Iscor for some years fought a protracted battle with owners of smallholdings near its Vanderbijlpark works. The owners claimed the company polluted ground water in the area and made the water in their boreholes undrinkable.
The Department of Water Affairs pressurised Iscor into buying out 100 smallholdings in the area.
According to an abbreviated version of the master plan, made available to the Vanderbijlpark community, it is going to cost Iscor R1,6-billion over the next 20 years to rehabilitate the area around the Vanderbijlpark works. – Sapa