Sasol letting the side down in Moz

One of the justified criticisms of colonialism is that, despite the illusion of development and infrastructure, indigenous colonised peoples were still left impoverished. The same holds true for the operations of many multinational corporations, which exploit the resources of countries on behalf of foreign shareholders, while leaving behind very little real benefit for the citizens of those countries.

Given that South Africa can be considered to have suffered at the hands of both systems, it is ironic that a mega-corporation which began in this country should stand accused of exploiting one of our poor neighbours.

Researchers in Mozambique, working with international aid organisation Oxfam, have accused petro-chemical giant Sasol of reneging on promises to improve the lives of Mozambicans as part of a deal for it to extract natural gas from a claim in the northern part of the country.

Sasol denies it has failed to honour its obligations, but our visit to the area showed that the multibillion-rand project has not only had little benefit for the villagers in the area, but it stands accused of negatively affecting the environment, through pollution of water sources and degradation of the soil.

The moral of the tale is: beware of investors bringing illusory gifts.