Sasol’s spokesperson Nomia Machebe appeared in the Secunda Magistrate’s Court on January 13 to represent the company on charges of water pollution.
A former Sasol employee, Ian Erasmus, took the petrol giant to court in September last year. He had been fighting the company internally for many years before ending up in court.
“I contacted Sasol’s ethics department as well, but they have ignored me since 2016,” said Erasmus.
This comes after Erasmus, who worked at Sasol as a senior process controller from 2005, noticed that a large valve was leaking.
He reported it to his manager but noticed three years later that the same valve had not been fixed.
“The leaking valve caused high levels of vanadium, diethanolamine and potassium carbonate to end up in dams in the area,” said Erasmus.
When he followed up on the valve issue by sending monthly e-mails to senior management and contacting Sasol’s ethics line, managers allegedly began to victimise him. Erasmus was suspended in 2017.
He got the Department of Environmental Affairs to investigate Sasol in 2018, but according to their report, they found nothing wrong.
Erasmus then contacted the Human Rights Commission.
The crime investigating division of the Department of Water and Sanitation took the matter further and asked Erasmus for the evidence he had collected over the years.
A criminal case was opened by the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries, 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.
Erasmus and Sasol will again face each other in court on April 25.
