Criminal charges for water pollution saw Sasol spokesperson, Nomia Machebe appear in the Secunda Magistrate’s Court on behalf of the company on January 13, after a former employee turned to government for help when his alleged internal fight with the company did not deliver results.

Ian Erasmus, a former Sasol employee, is central to the charges against the company.

He claims that he attempted to resolve the matter internally for many years before it ended up in court.

Erasmus, who worked as a senior process controller since 2005, claims that he noticed a large valve was leaking. He reported it to his manager but claims that three years later he noticed that the same valve had not been fixed.

“I contacted Sasol’s ethics department, but they have ignored me since 2016,” claims Erasmus.

“The leaking valve caused high levels of vanadium, diethanolamine and potassium carbonate to end up in dams in the area,” he says.

He claims that he was victimised and eventually suspended in 2017, after he started sending monthly e-mails to senior management and contacting Sasol’s ethics line about the leaking valve.

Erasmus says he got the Department of Environmental Affairs to investigate Sasol in 2018, but according to their report, they found nothing wrong.

He then contacted the Human Rights Commission.

The crime investigating division of the Department of Water and Sanitation took the matter further and obtained evidence, collected over the years, from Erasmus.

A criminal case was opened by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Sasol was served with an order to appear in court.

Sasol’s legal representative asked the court to postpone the case for further investigation.

The next court date has been set for April 25.