First casualty of medical waste scandal

A Sunday Times describes the horrific 300 ton stash of filthy bandages, used needles, vials and discarded pills found buried in the Free State town of Welkom as the Green Scorpions' biggest medical waste discovery to date. The dumping breaks waste management laws and poses serious public health risks, including ground water and borehole contamination and the spread of diseases such as hepatitis and HIV. Now the country's second-largest waste management company, Wasteman, which boasts multimillion-rand contracts with more than 150 hospitals and clinics, is being probed. The Green Scorpions, armed with search warrants and supported by scores of police forensics, organised crime and commercial crime officials, launched multiple simultaneous raids at the Maximus Bricks factory, at Wasteman's Klerksdorp incinerator, its Johannesburg head office and its Durban treatment facility. Officials in Durban also discovered waste, including anatomical waste, dated 17 November - which by law should long since have been destroyed. Full report in The Times

Wasteman is now being investigated for corruption and fraud, the Environmental Affairs Department said. A report on the IoL site notes that departmental spokesperson Albi Modise said the company had been sending truckloads of the medical waste to be buried at different sites around Welkom instead of being treated and disposed of according to the law. After the raid, the brick factory was issued with a compliance notice instructing for the closure of the site, the clean-up of the waste by an approved waste management company and the requirement to make the site secure. 'An urgent decision will now be taken as to the enforcement action required in relation to the two treatment and disposal facilities belonging to Wasteman, based on these contraventions,' said Modise. Full report on the IoL site

The president of the Institute of Waste Management for Southern Africa has quit in the wake of a scandal. Vincent Charnley is also chief executive of Phambili Wasteman Group, which is accused of dumping the waste. According to a report in The Times, he said yesterday that he would quit the institute until investigations into the alleged dumping were concluded. It has also emerged that Gavin Brasher, owner of Maximus Bricks, has claimed that he was bribed by a company in competition with Phambili Wasteman Group. Brasher's lawyer, Hannes Pyper, apparently told The Times that his client 'was promised R5m' by a competing company 'to take down the Wasteman Group'. Full report in The Times