Earthlife Africa expressed concern on Friday over the exclusion of its nominees to a team conducting a health study at the country’s nuclear facility in Pelindaba.
”We now have no hope that the Necsa [Nuclear Energy Corporation of South Africa] study will be independent. It looks like a whitewash,” said spokesperson Mashile Phalane.
Phalane’s statement follows a recent meeting by ill workers of Necsa, Earthlife Africa, the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the justice and peace desk of the Catholic Bishops Conference, with investigation head Mogwera Khoathane to discuss civil society participation in the study.
Khoathane was appointed by the Necsa board to probe allegations made against the occupational health and safety practices of Necsa as well as events leading to the death of employee Victor Motha at the company’s nuclear reactor near Pretoria.
Khoatane’s team includes Annanda How, an internationally registered International Organisation for Standardisation auditor and trainer for quality and environmental management systems, and Shaun Guy, a radiation-protection and radioactive waste-management expert.
Other members are Mokgothu Brian Nkonoane, a practising attorney with experience in personal-injury claims and litigation matters; Monde Ntwasa, a molecular biologist; and Barney de Villiers, an occupational-health expert.
Earthlife Africa had proposed environmental lawyer Richard Spoor, occupational health specialist Murray Coombs, environmental scientist and toxicologist Willie van Niekerk, organisational psychologist AA Ngwezi, international public-health specialist Gordon Thompson and international epidemiologist Richard Clapp.
”Our experts were rejected out of hand,” said Phalane.
He said that because some of the group’s nominees were not from South Africa, they could be independent of Necsa since they did not depend on the organisation for contracts or employment.
”We now have no hope that the Necsa study will be independent,” he said.
He said Khoathane was previously employed by Necsa and questioned how independent he would be.
Initially, Earthlife Africa identified 29 workers and former workers at Pelindaba who had become ill, and obtained medical records for 23 of them.
Five of these people have died, 13 have undergone medical examinations and 10 have been diagnosed with diseases linked to radiation exposure, including skin cancers and eye diseases.
The group’s own health studies will be continued by Coombs. It requested the medical records of a further 210 workers in April and is still waiting for these.
Comment from Necsa was not immediately available. — Sapa