An animal rights abuse ‘death ship’ and a polluting coal mine

Trucks transporting coal leave the Ikwezi coal mine in KwaZulu-Natal. (Photo: Mandla Langa)

25 Dec 2024

The Al Mawashi cattle company’s ‘death ship’ Al Kuwait clinched the first runner-up position this year for its air pollution and animal rights abuse. Ikwezi coal mine in KwaZulu-Natal, with its blatant disrespect for the local community and disregard for the natural environment, followed in third place.

Cattle ship Al Kuwait

It is rather unclear whether the Al Kuwait was a runner-up to this award because Capetonians are still upset at the stench they had to endure, or if the people are aware of the animal rights abuses endured on this ship.

Regardless of the sentiment, the Al Kuwait and its owner, Al Mawashi, were blatantly hellbent on putting profit and pollution before the Capetonian people, or the animals on board.

Not long after the company caused an uproar in Cape Town, it was gearing up new operations of exporting South Africa’s sheep from East London. This is not the first time Al Mawashi has ignored livestock export laws, as the company mutilated hundreds of cattle in the Eastern Cape in 2023.

But we’ll keep this a bit more pointed towards what our readers placed as runner-up to Dirtbag of the Year – the Al Kuwait ship. Anyone familiar with the atrocities of the transatlantic slave trade in the 17th century knows that humans were transported, with barely any room between them, starving and stuck in their own excrement.

Obviously human slavery is not comparable to animal cruelty – this is just to illustrate the conditions the 19,000 livestock were stuck in. The photos show it all – distressed animals, drenched in their excrement, which eventually let off dangerous levels of ammonia. Some animals had already died.

The ship crew stopped in South Africa for “food and medicine” for the animals, but South African authorities could not seize these livestock out of fear of foreign diseases – meaning they could still be used for profit at their destination.

Ikwezi coal mine

Ikwezi coal mine KwaZulu-Natal Trucks transporting coal leave the Ikwezi coal mine in KwaZulu-Natal. (Photo: Mandla Langa)

The “ikwezi” in Ikwezi Mining may mean “rising star” in isiXhosa, but for communities surrounding the company’s coal operations in KwaZulu-Natal, its shine comes from a thick cloud of coal dust, not celestial brilliance.

It has been about three years since Daily Maverick last reported on Ikwezi coal mine’s operations and its overt disrespect for the local community and general disregard for the natural environment.

However, it’s clear why our readers named these guys in their top three dirtbags of the year.

When you land on the home page of Ikwezi Mining’s website, you learn about the company’s commitment to considering the impacts of its actions, believing in a philosophy of reducing its environmental footprint and benefiting the areas it works in.

Reader, you are no fool, and neither are residents of Shepstone Lake, Newcastle, Nongoma, Vryheid, Utrecht, Kliprivier and Somkele.

Ikwezi indeed considers the impacts of its actions, which is why it made sense to snatch away Shepstone Lake’s community liaison officer – the go-between for the mine and the community.

Paternalistic behaviour followed, with management choosing to inform the local community of its new expansion plans, instead of seeking perspective.

It plays judge and jury when surveying the reported consequences of its own actions by getting internal assessors to evaluate the damage to local property as a result of its controlled blasts.

Besides that, these are subsistence farming communities. An entire coal mine is extracting land, profit and dignity from these communities without batting an eye.

Structural damage to hand-built homes, the death of livestock as a result of contamination and coal dust, air pollution and desecrated graves are all because of the company’s failure to engage with communities about their grievances.

Congratulations to you both. For the sake of everyone, our Daily Maverick team wishes to never see you on this list again. DM

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South Africa

Cattle ship Al Kuwait

Ikwezi coal mine