Desmond D’Sa.
Veteran environmental justice activist and co-ordinator of the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA) Dr Desmond D’Sa stands on the veranda of the organisation’s offices. His home can be seen behind him and smokestacks of another refinery behind that. © Malcolm Rainers / Greenpeace

The oil cartel has blood on their hands. They worked with the apartheid regime against Black people in South Africa and in other parts of the African continent, and continue to destroy people’s lives today. When activists in my hometown of Durban started fighting against polluting refineries 29 years ago, we did not think that the industrial plants that were there would still be operational now. But, if you want to beat giants, you can’t expect victory overnight and you have to give your all.

In defending our communities and environment from extractive industries, some of us pay with our lives. Many comrades I work with throughout South Africa are being killed. People like Ma Fikile Ntshangase – who opposed coal mining companies that wanted to take away her community’s land – and Bazooka (Sikhosiphi Rhadebe) from the South Coast – who was vocal in resisting mineral extraction projects – were both shot dead at their homes. But, you can’t sit back once you know the truth. 

Spiral of pollution, illness and violence

In my community in Durban, a University of Natal health study was clear that air pollution caused chronic asthma in over 53% of participating students. Another showed that Leukemia rates in children from the South Durban Basin were much higher than the nation average. And also, that this toxic cocktail of sickness created an environment rife for even more violence and death.  

When four people are shot on Saturday afternoon, and that’s a weekly occurrence, there is a much bigger issue at hand. Communities like Wentworth are trapped in a poverty cycle: there are very little resources left in the community for improving conditions, such as safety. The deprivation forces our community to scramble for the little that is there. The refineries at the heart of these communities seem to ignore the destruction surrounding their massive plants because the status quo means more profit for them. 

They’ve made huge amounts of profit, and our democratic government is as complacent and complicit in the money leaving this country as the apartheid government was. Our wealth ends up at the London or New York Stock Exchange, and is divvied up between all their rich shareholders all over the world. 

Empty promises 

They tell us oil expansion is going to benefit us, but there’s nothing that does benefit our people in the area. Go to the townships around us, look into these areas and you’ll see the way we live. Oil is destructive and robs us of life. 

We saw that with the gas truck that blew up under the bridge in Gauteng and killed so many people. There’s a gas pipeline in Joburg’s CBD that blew up very recently. They want to bring those same gas pipelines all the way from Secunda to Northern KwaZulu-Natal. This will ruin the land and make the people from those rural areas suffer.

We cannot allow the companies to start because once they start, they destroy the land, they destroy the water, they destroy us. Let’s not give them an inch to come and take over our properties, our land. We need to develop the land for the benefit of each and every one of us and for the future, on our own terms. The climate crisis that is currently threatening that future is caused by the chemical and petrochemical industry. They can deny it, but the science is clear. 

We are struggling over water. We’re fighting over food because they are selfishly chasing profit. They are already destroying the land with chemicals: GMOs, pesticides and the constant toxic emissions from their refineries and factories. If we let them continue with their pipelines, our food crops are at risk and we will suffer should there be an accident.

They are intent on destroying what is good for us, what is good for humanity. They want to profit on the scarcity and desperation they are creating. We have got to put humanity first, because we won’t eat money and we won’t live off the poison.

A version of this article was originally published by Sunday Times on 5 November 2023.

Dr Desmond D’sa is a veteran climate justice activist and founder of the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA). His activism journey is highlighted in Greenpeace’s new documentary ‘CRUDE: Wentworth Community vs Big Oil’ available on its YouTube channel.

Guest authors work with Greenpeace International to share their personal experiences and perspectives and are responsible for their own content.