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Coalition Press Release

Environmentalists learned a couple of weeks ago that Australia has exported hazardous wastes to South Africa in defiance of a global ban against such exports. In 1994, the United Nations Treaty known as the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal passed a consensus decision to ban the export of hazardous wastes for any reason from member states of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to non-OECD countries (i.e. from developed to developing countries). South Africa is not a member of the OECD while Australia is. In 1995, the Basel Convention took the ban a step further and agreed to place the ban in the actual text of the Convention by amendment. Both Australia and South Africa are parties to the Convention. At the last full meeting of the Convention in December of last year (attended by SA), all 134 Basel members, agreed to ratify the ban amendment as a matter of urgency. While the amendment is not yet in official force, and South Africa and Australia have not yet ratified it, they are still obliged to honour the decisions of the Basel Convention.

Yet now both the Australian and South African governments have authorised the export and import of 60 tonnes of paragoethite waste, containing high levels of lead and arsenic, from the mining and smelting giant Pasminco, Aus., to the South African firm of Mintek. According to the SA government, Mintek will use the waste for recycling "research" and then return the residues to Australia. Yet, according to the Basel Convention's waste dumping ban, the fact that somehow this import is justified because it is for research or recycling purposes, or that the residues from the process will be re-exported to Australia, is absolutely irrelevant. The Basel Ban decision has no exemption for research. Recycling processes are specifically covered by the Basel Ban, as it is well understood that almost all waste trade in recent times is destined for recycling operations which are often highly polluting.

"This is the first time that the 1994 Basel Convention's Dumping Ban Decision has been intentionally violated," says Jim Puckett of BAN. "And it is the first time an African country has intentionally imported toxic waste since 1994. The arrogance or naïveté on the part of Australia and South Africa in this latest scheme is truly frightening." Not only is the import of this waste into Africa, a violation of the global Basel Ban, it is also flies in the face of numerous Organization of African Unity (OAU) resolutions and the OAU’s own Bamako Convention, which also bans the import of hazardous waste into Africa for any reason.

"The community of African nations have unequivocally stated ‘NO’ to foreign toxic waste dumping on our continent. Yet South Africa has inexplicably failed to sign this ban," says Linda Ambler of groundWork. " If South Africa fails to renounce the hazardous waste trade quickly we will soon become the designated dumping ground of other people’s unwanted garbage.

The South African government’s failure to ratify the Basel Ban Amendment, failure to sign and ratify the Bamako Convention, and now its decision to import waste from Australia all appear to indicate a lack of political will on the part of the South African government to close the door on the international hazardous waste trade,” she said.

Ambler says that these omissions by the SA government raise questions about the political intentions of the SA government. She asks, “What is the reason behind South Africa’s continued reluctance to ratify and/or sign these international agreements? Does this indicate that there is a desire on the part of the SA government to position South Africa as a waste trafficking state? Is it the case that the SA government sees the international hazardous waste trade as an economic opportunity to be exploited?” "The deaths and tragedies surrounding the still unsolved problems of the tonnes of mercury waste imported by Thor Chemicals at Cato Ridge serve as a continual reminder of the possible consequences of international hazardous waste trafficking," says Bryan Ashe of Earthlife Africa. "Our government must say No to the international hazardous waste trade. "

In the letter to Minister Moosa (see attached) the organisations call on South Africa to never again engage in the importation of hazardous wastes from outside the continent of Africa and to speedily expedite the signing and ratification of the Basel Ban and the Bamako Convention and to pass implementing legislation as a matter of priority.

For more information please contact:

Jim Puckett, Basel Action Network (BAN), Seattle, USA Tel/Fax +1-206-720-6426, E-mail jpuckett@ban.org

Linda Ambler groundWork, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa Tel +27-33-342 5662, Fax +27-33-342 5665, E-mail groundwork@sn.apc.org

Matt Ruchel, Greenpeace Australia, Sydney Tel 61-+3 94789769, Fax 61-+3 94789256, Mobile 61-+408837138. E-mail matt.ruchel@dialb.greenpeace.org

Bryan Ashe, Earthlife Africa-Durban, South Africa, Tel/fax +27-31-2052178, Mobile+27-826521533, E-mail bryan@mweb.co.za

Marcelo Furtado, Greenpeace International, Brazil Tel +55-11-30661165, mobile +55-11-91697954, E-mail mfurtado@dialb.greenpeace.org

* The full list of signatories to the letter to Minister Moosa is: Greenpeace, BAN, groundWork, Earthlife Africa (Durban, Joburg and Cape Town), Bio Watch, Meadowlands Environmental Group, South African Freeze Alliance on Genetic Engineering (SAFeAGE) , the Zululand Environmental Alliance (ZEAL), EJNF-Gauteng, Wildlife and Environment Society of SA (WESSA)