Indigenous community resisting nuclear reactor in Eastern Cape, South Africa

the Gamtkwa community still feels marginalised
and establishing a nuclear reactor atop a priceless heritage site is
likely to alienate them further.

There goes the neighbourhood…and here comes nuclear, Mail and
Guardian, Africa,
21 DEC 2012 05:00 – LIONEL FAULL

What happens when government plans to build a nuclear plant in your
hometown? Lionel Faull went to the Eastern Cape to find out.The
process of rolling out a massive nuclear power expansion programme
gained momentum in November when the Cabinet endorsed electricity
utility Eskom as the owner and operator of the proposed new nuclear
power stations. But the plan still faces an uphill public battle, not
least from the people in whose back yard the first new nuclear
behemoth is going to be carved out.

The Mail & Guardian went to Thyspunt in the Eastern Cape, where Eskom
is finalising the environmental plan for its preferred site, to hear
what locals have to say about living next door to nukes…….
To Booysen, the history and heritage of her people are inscribed on
this landscape. But Eskom’s plans would rip her ancestors out of the
ground and put them in museum storage. They would rip Booysen’s heart
out of her chest too, she said, indicating with a balled fist exactly
where it already ached.

Booysen is Gamtkwa blue blood, married to the tribal chief, Ronnie Booysen.

The tribe’s more recent history is one of displacement as successive
waves of colonisers have swept along their shores and dumped them like
flotsam somewhere else.

The Booysens live in Hankey, 50km inland from Thyspunt on the Gamtoos
River, close to the resting place of their most famous ancestor, Sarah
Baartman…..
Baartman was enslaved and then, in 1810, taken to Europe where she was
paraded in front of leering crowds as an exotic curiosity. After she
died in 1815, Baartman’s body was cut up and studied by anatomists. In
2002, the South African government repatriated her remains to Hankey
and she was buried beneath a cairn of round stones atop
Vergaderingskop (Meeting Hill). Some of the stones were recently
adorned with ANC stickers, trumpeting the creation of the Sarah
Baartman region in May this year.

A dry wind blew litter into the thorny bushes near the grave site and
we stepped over a desiccated condom lying in the dust.

Booysen explained the dissatisfaction the Khoisan feel with what they
perceive as the “lip service” being paid to them by cynical
politicians.

The Khoisan are depicted symbolically on the national coat of arms and
are moving closer to attaining formal “first nation” indigenous status
in South Africa. But the Gamtkwa community still feels marginalised
and establishing a nuclear reactor atop a priceless heritage site is
likely to alienate them further.

“Why is it always the Khoisan heritage that must be sacrificed when
developments take place?” asked Booysen. “They are always prepared to
protect the heritage of other cultures – why are they not prepared to
do it for us, the first nation of this country?”…..
The only place on the South African coastline where the chokka squid
(Loligo vulgaris reynaudii) breeds is within a 20km radius of the
proposed nuclear site at Thyspunt…….
Christy is not prone to sentimentality, but the mysterious nature of
the chokka squid still amazes him.

“They are extremely sensitive to environmental change,” he said. “One
day you’ll catch loads; the next day the weather or the tide changes
and you catch nothing. We still don’t know what attracts them to breed
here and only here, but the fact that they do means the environment is
perfect for them, so don’t fuck it up.”

He is referring to Eskom’s plans to dump 6.3million cubic metres of
sand out to sea after digging down to the bedrock under the dunes to
anchor the nuclear reactors.

It is expected that, over a decade, the tides will slowly level out
the undersea mound of sand over an area of 18km2, taking up 25% of the
undersea area where the squid are known to lay their eggs.

Other potential disruptions include Eskom’s plans to draw in seawater
to cool the reactors and then return it to the sea at a warmer
temperature and different salinity. There is also a planned 1km
security exclusion zone out to sea where no vessels will be allowed to
fish.

Christy is unhappy with a report prepared by the squid scientific
working group – a structure in the agriculture, forestry and fisheries
department – that concluded that the impact of the nuclear build on
squid breeding grounds would be “negligible”.

“They are government guys and the government’s big-picture plan is to
provide power. But then they should put it somewhere else, not where
squid breed,” he said……..
‘In its draft assessment, Eskom acknowledges that “the Thyspunt site
would experience environmental impacts of higher significance” than
any other sites it has studied….
http://mg.co.za/article/2012-12-21-00-there-goes-the-neighbourhoodand-here-comes-nuclear