By Norm Dixon
Three senior chemical company executives in South Africa are being tried for murder following the death of a worker from mercury poisoning in July. The case, believed to be the first prosecution of its kind, has exposed the callous indifference to the lives of workers by big business in South Africa.
The surprisingly tough stand taken by South African authorities against Thor Chemicals followed a concerted campaign by a coalition of trade unions, environmental groups and public health workers and graphic media coverage of effects on workers of exposure to mercury.
On September 15, Thor Chemicals managing director Steve van der Vyver, factory manager Gavin Daniels and chief supervisor William Smith appeared before a magistrates court charged with "culpable homicide". They have also been charged with 42 counts under the Machinery and Occupational Safety Act. Van der Vyver and Daniels were released on R20,000 each and Smith on R10,000.
They are charged with the murder of Peter Cele, who died of mercury poisoning after a year in a coma. Cele and another worker, Engelbert Ncgobo, who remains in a coma in hospital, worked at Thor Chemicals for a year.
The British-owned Thor Chemicals plant in Cato Ridge, 50 kilometres from Pietermaritzburg in Natal, is the world's biggest mercury recovery plant, burning highly toxic mercury waste imported from the UK and the US. Thor is a subsidiary of the British multinational Thor Holdings.
Many of the plant's workers are refugees from state-sponsored political violence in Natal. They live without essential services in a squatters' camp in Fredville, seven kilometres away.
The three executives are accused of causing Cele's death by failing to conduct regular biological tests, failing to introduce programs to educate workers about the dangers of the deadly substances they handled and failing to remove Cele from the plant when he showed symptoms of mercury contamination.
Evidence has also been presented by several former Thor workers that management had sacked labourers when it was discovered that levels of mercury in their bodies were dangerous. Management had hired new workers to replace them rather than take action to make the plant safe.
The Thor bosses' criminal disregard for its workers, neighbours and the environment has slowly come to light over several years. In 1988 government scientists testing the Umgcweni stream, which begins near the Cato Ridge plant and from which Fredville draws its water, found it was contaminated with mercury. The authorities chose to keep this secret.
In 1989, Earthlife Africa — one of South Africa's main environmental groups — found out about the contamination. Greenpeace International also became involved in a campaign against the potentially lethal discharges.
At the same time, temporary workers at the plant who had become sick from exposure to mercury and were fired alerted the Chemical Workers Industrial Union. The CWIU demonstrated outside Thor. The furore led the government to order a temporary closure of the mercury processing section of the plant.
The union attempted to confirm rumours that many workers had been poisoned and some had "gone mad". Thor management refused to allow an independent doctor access to employees' medical records or to take urine samples.
The CWIU asked Dr Mark Colvin, an occupational health expert at the University of Durban, to try to investigate the situation at Thor. He examined five Thor workers brought to him by shop stewards, finding them all seriously affected by mercury, causing memory loss and tremors. The worst affected, Eric Mkhize, suffered from "profound auditory and visual hallucinations followed by severe anxiety attacks".
In 1991, Colvin finally got hold of Thor's medical records and was shocked to discover that 87% of all workers at Cato Ridge had mercury levels above the 50 micrograms per litre of urine danger level set by the International Labour Organisation and the World Health Organisation. Mkhize's levels were found to measure between 400 and 1000 micrograms!
Soon after three men — Cele, Ncgobo and Albert Dlamini — were discovered in hospital. Colvin examined them and diagnosed severe mercury poisoning. Until the arrest of van der Vyver, Daniels and Smith, Thor continued to deny any responsibility for the mercury-related deaths and illnesses.
After an independent inquiry in 1992 called for stringent safety measures to be put in place at Cato Ridge, Thor Chemicals ceased all operations involving mercury compounds.
Mark Colvin told the South African environmental magazine New Ground that the "symptoms of mercury poisoning can sometimes mimic other psychiatric disorders. It is not like having a skin disease where you can see what is going on. The symptoms are subtle but can have a devastating effect on a person's life."
Eric Mkhize's symptoms, however, were anything but subtle. He told New Ground last year: "I used to sweat a lot at work. The first thing I noticed was my hands shaking. I showed my production manager. He thought it was a joke. They laughed. A few months later I felt very strange when I got to work ... Instead of going to my workplace I went to the administration block. I started doing funny things, playing with imaginary toys in the flower beds, handing out money. I don't remember doing it but they told me I did it."
After this behaviour, Thor managers sent Mkhize to a doctor, who gave him some vitamin pills and told him to take a day off. During a second fit of "weird and crazy" acts, Mkhize said, he was talked into signing a resignation form. Without a job and living in his one-room tin shack in Fredville, his condition worsened: "I started hearing strange noises inside my ears — like someone calling me right inside or dogs barking or the radio playing. I still hear them even now but it is not as bad as it was."
Mkhize's illness and lack or a job devastated his family. His sister Clara said that he "just lay on the bed crying ... At night he would try and run away. We had to have someone watching him all the time so that we could fetch him back." Because Mkhize was unable to work, and his sister unable to leave his side, the family was left penniless.
Albert Dlamini, also lucky to escape death, told Sunday Nation on September 19 that back in 1991 his hands shook so much he could not light a smoke. He still finds that simple task difficult. He said he could hardly walk, talk, hear or see clearly. He could not feel the difference between hot and cold.
Since the murder charges were laid, several more Thor employees have fallen ill. In mid-August a painter at Thor, Thulumuzi Shenge, died. Pending a post-mortem, the three Thor executives may be prosecuted over Shenge's death.
On September 20, Petros Gwamanda collapsed and was admitted to hospital. Dr Colvin said Gwamanda showed "classic symptoms" of mercury poisoning. Colvin added that Peter Cele's colleague, Engelbert Ncgobo, remains in a deep coma, another worker cannot walk or talk, and there are "a whole lot of other workers with lesser effects".
The British-based Environmental Justice Networking Forum is organising demonstrations in Britain to force the UK government to disclose all its information on toxic waste dumping in South Africa and other African countries.
Earthlife Africa will pursue civil claims in the courts against Thor Chemicals on behalf of the growing number of victims.
Reflecting on some of the lessons of the Thor Chemicals case, CWIU spokesperson Mohamed Motala pointed out in New Ground, "There are numerous dangerous processes involving workers in South Africa, yet it is only when someone dies that we blink. It was only when the environmentalists joined in and we went public that progress was made."