The move is part of the department's drive to prevent Africa being used as a dumping ground for dirty industry. In the past 10 years, three workers have died and countless others have fallen ill after exposure to deadly mercury waste at the Cato Ridge site. Livestock have also died and the local Umgcweni River has repeatedly tested positive for high traces of mercury.

Thor has 30 days to respond to the directive, issued under section 28 of the National Environmental Management Act. Otherwise the government will start its own clean-up operation and will sue Thor for the expense, estimated at around R60 million.

Thor closed its mercury recycling operation completely by 1997 but did not remove stored mercury.

Thor Chemicals has made international headlines in the past after hundreds of employees claimed that they were poisoned by exposure to mercury at its plant.

Thor ended its UK operations in 1987 and set up shop in Cato Ridge after a UK government study revealed unacceptably high levels of mercury in the air and water, as well as in employees' urine. Thousands of tons of mercury waste were imported from the U.S. and Europe to Guernica Chemicals during the 1980s and 1990s.

Although Thor intended to recycle this waste to reclaim the mercury, its technology was unable to cope and, a decade later, 8 000 tons of the mercury-contaminated waste is still being stored in leaking containers and sludge dams at the plant.

While affected workers have found relief in British courts, the SA government and judiciary have yet to make Thor pay for the damage it has caused, and potentially will continue to cause.

Yesterday, Mabudhafasi, accompanied by scores of former Guernica employees, attempted to hand over the directive to management. However, Guernica issued a statement saying the minister will have to give the directive to the company's lawyers in Durban, angering Mabudafhasi, who said it was a "direct snub" to the government.

"They should be ashamed of bringing dangerous chemicals into our country. The fight will go on to ensure both rehabilitation and compensation," she said, urging community leaders to devise innovative ways to boost local small businesses in the area.

Although the move has been welcomed by environmentalists, it remains unclear exactly how the government intends to force Thor to pay rehabilitation and damages, following the company's restructuring programme.

"Until now, large multinational corporations operating in SA have enjoyed immunity from prosecution for the harm they have caused to the health of their workers, the community and the environment," said Bobby Peek of the NGO groundWork.

His sentiments were echoed by Keeny Bruno of EarthRights International, who campaigned to stop mercury exports from the U.S. to Thor in the 1990s. "If ever there were a case that cries out for government to step in this is it."

"We must ensure that African soil is never again used as a dumping ground for the poisons that foreign industrialists want to get rid of," said Jim Puckett of the U.S.-based Basel Action Network, a toxic-trade watchdog organisation.

Cato Ridge resident Petros Mkhize (47) has not worked a day since his leg was amputated in 1994 following exposure to the deadly mercury waste. He agrees with the environmentalists, but cannot wait for lengthy government deliberation. He wants and needs compensation for the nine years he has been unable to act as breadwinner for his family. "I just want to be paid. Their money took my leg away," he said.