ACTSA Scotland joined the demonstration on Workers' memorial day outside Cape Calsis Systems on Saturday 28th April 2001.   The demonstration met at 12 noon at Barnhill Railway station and marched from there to the Cape factory.

At the end of last year, a delegation from ACTSA Scotland visited the communities in South Africa affected by Cape PLC's asbestos mining operations in apartheid South Africa.   We saw for ourselves the devastation that had been caused by Cape PLC.   We met victims of asbestos related diseases such as mesothelioma.   We visited the Penge mine, which ceased operating in the 1970s, and where lumps of asbestos were still lying on the ground.

There are currently 5,000 sufferers from asbestos related diseases pressing their claims for compensation through the English courts.   Cape PLC has so far refused to pay and four years of legal wrangling have already cost sixty lives.   The longer this goes on, the more people will die.

David Kenvyn, a member of the National Executive Council of ACTSA and the Scottish Committee of ACTSA, said "When we were in South Africa, we promised that we would stand by the claimants until compensation had been won.   We demand that Cape PLC accepts its responsibilities for what it has done to these people, and pays up now".

Cape PLC profited for many years from apartheid.   ACTSA Scotland believes that it is time that it looks after the people it exploited, recognises its responsibilities and does justice by 5,000 South African asbestos sufferers.

Speech to the Workers' Memorial Day Rally, Springburn, Glasgow on 28th April 2001

I am proud to represent the National Executive Council of Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA) at this rally today.   I would like to thank the West of Scotland Hazards Group for organising this tribute to South African asbestos sufferers on Workers' Memorial Day.

On this day seven years ago, the people of South Africa were voting in the first democratic elections held in that country.   On this day, seven years ago, thousand of people had been queueing for 48 hours to cast their vote in the election that ended apartheid.

But there were some who did not live to see that wonderful day.   they had worked in the asbestos mines of Cape PLC, or they had washed the clothes of those miners, or they had played in the streets with asbestos dust all around them.   They died of mesothelioma and other diseases before the polls
opened.   They were amongst the many victims of apartheid.

It was the election of 1994 that gave people hope of getting compensation from Cape PLC for their suffering.   The first battle was to get their cases
heard in the English Courts.   Cape PLC wanted the cases held in South Africa.   Cape PLC had no assets in South Africa, and so even if the cases
had been won, the asbestos sufferers, in all likelihood, would not have got any compensation.

Cape PLC argued that it was not in the public interest for these compensation cases to be held in the English courts.   ACTSA responded to
this immediately.   We invited representatives of the affected communities to visit the UK.   We brought Audrey van Schalkwyk from Prieska in Northern Cape Province and Shadrach Molokoane from ga-Mathabatha in Northern Province to Glasgow.   Here, they met with asbestos sufferers and the campaigners from Clydeside and Clydebank.   It became apparent that the asbestos that had poisoned people in South Africa was the same asbestos that poisoned people here.   The asbestos was mined in South Africa and imported into the UK through the docks in Glasgow and elsewhere.

ACTSA brought Gwede Mantashe, the General Secretary of the South African National Union of Mineworkers, to explain the case of asbestos sufferers in his country to trade unionists here.   Gwede met with the STUC and many Scottish trade unionists.   We brought Manne Dipico, the premier of Northern Cape Province, to London to lobby the government on this issue.

And then the case went to the House of Lords for their judegement on whether the English Courts could hear the compensation cases on behalf of 5,000 South African asbestos claimants.

It was at this point that ACTSA decided to make a submission to the House of Lords.   This was a risky thing to do.   If the case had gone against us, we could have become liable for some of the costs of Cape PLC.   But we asked ourselves "What kind of a solidarity organisation will we be if we do not stand by the South African claimants now?"   And so, we decided to stand shoulder to shoulder with the claimants.   We made our submission to the House of Lords.   We argued that it was outrageous that Cape PLC, a British company, should seek to avoid its responsibilities in this way, and that this was clearly not in the public interest.   The claimants won the right to pursue their cases for compensation in the English Courts.

But it was already too late for sixty people.   They had died during the four years of legal wrangling that it took to get this far.   Cape PLC saved
thousands of pounds because these sixty people died.   Delay appears to be part of Cape PLC's strategy.   Delay costs lives.   We must stop them
delaying any further.

In October last year, a delegation went from ACTSA Scotland to visit South Africa.   One group went to Northern Province to meet the communities
affected by asbestos mining.   We saw the conditions in which those people were still living.   We saw what Cape PLC had done.   Cape PLC profited from apartheid, and now they are trying to avoid all responsibility for their actions.

We attended a rally, like this one, at ga-Mathabatha, where we were the guests of honour.   We explained what ACTSA was doing to support them.   We told them about the people suffering from asbestos related diseases in Scotland.   We made them realise that they are not alone in their battle
with Cape PLC.   Like today, we took, our banner with us.   We took it into the crowd, and when they began dancing in celebration we joined them.

On that visit, we gave an unspoken pledge to the 5,000 South African asbestos sufferers claiming compensation from Cape PLC.   We told them that
we would stand with them for as long as it takes for them to win compensation.

And our message to Cape PLC is the same as our message to the apartheid government - "We have the stamina, we have the determination and we will win".

 Social inclusion and libraries in South Africa :

a report on the visit of the Action for Southern Africa Scotland delegation, October 2000.

"45% of the schools in South Africa have a room that is called 'The Library' but they do not have any books in them", Kader Asmal, the Minister of Education, told a delegation from Action for Southern Africa Scotland, when we were visiting Cape Town at the end of October last year.   He added that in South Africa, there are 6 million people who are illiterate, victims of the Bantu education system that trained black people to be "hewers of wood and drawers of water" in their own country.

That morning, we had already visited schools in Khayelitsha, the largest township in Cape Town.   Khayelitsha comes as a shock, especially to people who have never seen that kind of deprivation before.   We visited the Khayelitsha Education and Resource Information Centre (KERIC) where we were told that lack of books in the schools is a major problem.   We went from KERIC to Yomelela School in the company of Denis Goldberg, the Director of Community HEART, to see their IT centre.   The school buildings had been donated by the George Soros Foundation, and the computers in the IT Centre
had been donated by Community HEART.   It was a joy to see the children using the computers, which we had helped to provide, and gaining skills that would equip them economically for the future.   More important still was the boost that gaining these skills was giving to the self-esteem.   From there, we went to the Khayelitsha pre-school playgroup, where the children laughed as they sang and danced for us.   But it was obvious that they did not have any picture books at all.

So when Kader Asmal told us of the extent of deprivation, we had already been made very aware of the issue.   Next year is the UN Year of the Reader, and the South African government intend to prioritise the building up of libraries in schools and elsewhere.   To do this, it needs a million books - new books and donations.

ACTSA  Scotland has already been involved in sending books to South Africa. Two container loads have been donated to the Eastern Cape Provincial Library Service.   Cheryl Carolus, the South African High Commissioner,came to East Dunbartonshire Libraries in 1998 to personally receive a donation of 5,000 withdrawn books.   Part of the delegation went to the Eastern Cape Provincial Library Service and had a meeting with Mrs. Mabandla, the Depute Head of the Library Service.

Mrs Mabandla asked if ACTSA Scotland could send out some librarians with the next container load to help blitz the processing for them.   She also said that support with staff training would be helpful, as the training of librarians in the processes of stock monitoring and evaluation does not exist.   But Mrs. Mabandla made it clear that funding was not available from the South African end.

Mrs. Mabandla also raised the possibility of linking libraries in the Eastern Cape with libraries in Scotland.   The possibilities of staff exchanges, the donation of withdrawn stock to specific libraries, the sharing of catalogue records and things of this kind are all possibilities.Mrs. Mabandla reminded us that most of the libraries in the Eastern Cape Province are in rural areas, and that stock donations should be culturally appropriate for people who live in rural communities.

In Soweto, we visited three school libraries at Prudence, Thabo and Tladi schools.   These schools were pooling their resources in terms of computers, libraries and scientific equipment.   Thabo school was the main centre for the library, which had been donated by Community HEART and ACTSA Scotland.   We saw books donated by East Dunbartonshire and other libraries (Scottish, English and Welsh) on the shelves ready to be used by the children.

One little girl at a school in Kwazulu-Natal told us "I love the library because it has books, and books help me to learn English and to learn things".

Next month, Community HEART and ACTSA Scotland will be launching an appeal to send a million bboks to libraries in South Africa.   Between us, we have already sent one million books, but our visit convinced us that the need was so great that we should begin work on sending our second million.This is how we will be supporting the UN Year of the Reader in South Africa.   To achieve this we need your help.

David Kenvyn is the Operations Librarian, East Dunbartonshire Libraries, a
member of the ACTSA Scotland Committee and a member of the ACTSA UK
National Executive Council.
 

home