Desmond D’Sa started environmental campaigning in the Durban industrial basin before it became sexy to hold business to account. Today he shares his views with KZN INVEST.
Pictures: Jon Ivins
For more than 25 years, Wentworth local Desmond D’Sa championed the health of his community. It cost him his job and resulted in his home being petrol bombed, but D’Sa persisted and in the process formalised resistance to irresponsible corporate behaviour.
It wasn’t the life he imagined, but it has been a massively empowering journey for the son of a carpenter and a nurse. D’Sa was one of 13 children. He was born in Cato Manor but at age 10 his family was forcibly relocated by the apartheid government to Wentworth.
The wider area, including Jacobs, Merebank and Clairwood, is home to about 70% of Durban’s industry (much of it dirty) and 120 000 people. People live cheek by jowl with factories, many of which are unashamedly dirty, and the level of noxious gases and the incidence of cancer there has been flagged internationally.
When D’Sa started rattling the corporate cage, many businesses shrugged it off. The dormitory suburbs were designed to supply cheap labour to industry and the advent of democracy did not coincide with a flush of environmental conscience.
D’Sa started his working life in construction and moved to textile factories. When he was sacked for his activism, D’Sa’s four children were still at school.
His opposition to the fuel refineries put him on a collision course with siblings who argued his agitation threatened local jobs dependent on the industry.
“They were angry. They said I was going to suffer for taking on the giants. I said you choose between right and wrong, even if it means personal hardship.” D’Sa plays down the crusading aspect of his job. In 2104 he was awarded the prestigious Goldman Environmental Award, a global accolade sometimes described as the environmental equivalent of the Nobel Prize.
He used the prize money to buy an office for South Durban Community Environmental Alliance. Where he was once a one-man-band, now there is a staff of eight. It is a modest outfit, but is now networked with similar non-governmental agencies in 38 countries, all sharing information.
D’Sa shared his thoughts and experiences with KZN INVEST.
Q: You have garnered a wealth of information about industry and pollution, all largely self-taught. If you reflect back, what have been your three golden rules?
A: Violence begets violence. I live in a community where gunshots are an everyday occurrence. You can use power to fight for your space, to demand accountability, but never resort to violence.
The second thing is to build trust by sharing. I live in the same flat my parents raised my family in. Every day I walk the streets where I played as a boy. At night I pray with my neighbours in the same street. I talk to my neighbours. There is community surveillance of the air quality. You would think it is complicated, but knowledge in the hands of the community is powerful.
The third thing is to remember how my parents raised us, to be well mannered. It taught me respect and the values I carry through today. I see many people with no cause to carry them through the tough times.
Q: You have never been successfully courted by any political party for any position. Why?
A: We need to change the political system so that people get service. Why aren’t officials held to account? Why are they there if they can’t help? We need direct representation that encourages active citizenship. That is the only way to change behaviour. We align ourselves with shack dwellers and hostel dwellers and people who need help. It is about getting back to basics and owning our own processes.
Q: You have engaged with big business and held corporate leaders to account. Do you experience much empathy for the plight of the community?
A: Some businesses do the right thing. They want to put back into the community. But others, I don’t think they realise their privilege. If many of the CEOs of businesses in our areas lived here, the pollution would be nothing like it is. Their children have parks to play in and good schools to go to. It is easy to talk about good intentions, but it is another thing to behave with humility and to genuinely help where there is a need.
Q: You have held the refineries and others to account. They are huge enterprises worth billions that employ thousands of people down the value chain. What is their future?
A: Much of the refineries are rusty buckets. Toxic pollution kills. You can save money for your shareholders at the expense of safety. There are areas of improvement. The long-term future of the refineries has to be discussed. You can’t just shut them down, there has to be a transition to something else. The shareholders can’t just up and leave. We need independent facilitation of a community engagement. Fossil fuels have a limited life.
Q: What is your view of the commitment of the eThekwini Municipality and organised business to greener business?
A: The Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry does not respond to our requests for engagement, nor does the Growth Coalition. The municipality is not a good monitor of air quality. They don’t seem genuinely interested in the community or anything but bare minimum observance to the law.
Q: You are rallying around issues of tourism and the protection of the coast from oil and gas exploration. What are your concerns and what does the future hold?
A: The coast is a precious resource, the entire stretch of it. We want to engage the hospitality industry around the long-term future. Exploration (for oil and gas) harms the environment, yet thousands of people depend on the coast for an income. You don’t have to depend on big industries alone. There are prospects for small businesses with conscience.