Residents are questioning why local steel factory Kamal Cisco is in operation if a notice of non-compliance was issued late last year.
The steel factory (first opened in 1967) has been a contentious issue ever since it reopened in 2017 under ownership of DHT Africa after it was non-operational since 2010. During this closure residential areas sprung up near the plant.
After the Kamal Group of Tanzania acquired Cisco in 2021 word was that the new owners indicated they wanted to do better than their predecessors (in limiting emissions/air pollution).
Jan Kruger, a City of Cape Town media spokesperson, said the facility was never ordered, but requested to cease operations based on the relevant national legislation and compliance notices.
“A complaint was lodged by a member of the public on the City’s complaint logging system in November last year.
Initial investigations commenced with engagement with the facility on Monday 20 November 2023.
“Logistical arrangements were then put in place for the City’s Environmental Health Inspectors to conduct a formal compliance inspection of the facility on 28 November.”
Kruger said the facility failed to comply with conditions of authorisation prescribed in the facilities’ Atmospheric Emission Licence.
“These included administrative provisions as well as conditions regulating emissions to the atmosphere. The Compliance Notice was issued to the facility on 22 December.
“On 21 November the facility was requested to cease operating in line with the Facilities Duty of Care obligations under the National Environmental Management Act (Nema), until such time that the cause of the emissions could be determined and reported. Temporary cessation of operations commenced 22 November.”
Residue
Kruger said the compliance notice was still in effect, with different timelines prescribed for different actions.
“The facility has until 28 February to fully comply with the notice. The City does not have the power to suspend or revoke the facilities’ Atmospheric Emission Licence as the empowering clauses provided for in terms of Nema have not yet been put into full effect.”
Kruger said independent emissions monitoring was conducted at the Kamal Cisco facility on 5 and 6 February.
“Further non-compliances will be dealt with in terms of due processes provided for in the National Environmental Management Act.”
Earl Polman from Vredelust said he was fed up with the situation and would be moving out of the area soon.
”They’ve been issued a notice, but they are still trading. The City is not telling us what that notice means.”
He questioned why the City issued a notice “now”.
“It’s a publicity stunt ahead of the elections. For years we’ve been sending them evidence and even analysis of heavy metals. Now, after this one complaint, they issue a notice.
“My pool is full of residue. They operate through the night, during the day it’s fairly quiet, but at night it’s rampant.
‘They can say what they want, but I know the residue comes from them. I don’t even feel like cleaning the pool, every morning it’s full of residue, it looks discoloured.”
Measures taken
Kamal Cisco issued a statement last week in response to an article that appeared in Business Day on 5 February, which “inferred that operations were shut down indefinitely” (following the City’s request to halt operations), which is not the case.
According to the statement (signed by plant manager Peter van Wyk and SHERQ manager Jacqueline Jansen van Vuuren) “Kamal Cisco always ensures it follows the guidelines set out by the respective regulating authorities and to operate within their bounds.
“We continuously inspect and evaluate any deviance from set parameters and always try to rectify immediately if any are found. Furthermore, when required, external governmental and private agencies are consulted and involved to ensure objective compliance. Kamal Cisco is committed to taking all the necessary steps to ensure that fume/plant emissions are constantly monitored.”
The company claimed the incident (complaint registered regarding emissions) in November was an isolated one.
“According to standard procedure, on realising [what had happened] the plant management immediately ceased operations and investigated the reason of the occurrence, and on the notice and instruction from the City of Cape Town, Kamal Cisco took all remedial steps to investigate fully the incident as indicated by the City.
“This is standard practice for such investigations in terms of both Kamal Cisco’s Air Emissions Licence (AEL) and company policy in such an event,” it states.
“On submission of the report to the City, and with the due permission, we resumed production from 5 to 9 December, after which the company had its annual closure for 2023.”
It stated that during this annual shutdown additional maintenance was undertaken on all equipment related to the fume plants.
“During January 2024 Kamal Cisco submitted all the information requested, in terms of the Compliance Notice, to the City, except for the Air Quality Impact study which is to be submitted at the end of February.”
The company states it has an experienced team tasked with continuous monitoring to ensure environmental commitments are upheld. “Kamal Cisco has a highly sensitive monitoring system in place that gets calibrated and checked at stipulated intervals, as it is not possible to distinguish with the naked eye, the difference between permissible smoke and steam from polluted air.
“This is why we rely on the readings from our monitoring system, which has recently been checked by independent engineers.”
