Challenging the Saldanha-Sishen Project

Loading jetty Sishen iron ore

Today the Saldanha-Sishen iron ore mining and export business soars ahead. The port of Saldanha has exported a significant increase in 2009: during the six months to June Saldanha has exported almost 22 million tons of iron ore, compared with 17 million tons shipped during the same period of 2008.

The main beneficiary of this export has been Kumba Iron Ore, an Anglo American Corporation company that came into being after the privatization and unbundling of Iscor. Much of the export goes to China. In 2008 its operating profits were in the order of R 10 bn.


This dramatic increase in exports reflects a significant capacity increase in the dedicated railway which handles the mine’s iron ore from its Northern Cape Sishen mine to the West Coast port. Kumba Iron Ore is today the world’s fourth largest exporter of the seaborne iron ore trade with clients in Asia and Europe.

Unlike Mossgas, the Saldanha-Sishen was no white elephant project and developed by the National Party government to significantly boost mining production and employment. It would also add significantly to anchoring trade relations with its Western governments to mitigate political pressures because of the South African government’s apartheid policies. Dutch firms would benefit significantly in huge projects such as the construction of the new harbor facility in Saldanha.

Almost four decades ago, way back in 1974, the following article appeared in the Dutch daily, De Volkskrant based on information provided by the General Secretary of the Dutch Anti Apartheid Movement, Berend Schuitema:

“Estel is currently conducting a series of investigations into the feasibility of investing in South Africa. Estel is the Hoogovens / Hoescht blast furnace in which the Dutch holds a 20% share and the municipality of Amsterdam 8.5%. Taken by itself, there does not appear anything new about this. For while scores of Dutch firms already have financial interests in South Africa the difference is that Estel would be the first ever semi-governmental corporation which would be taking such a step. Prime Minister den Uyl declared that he was ‘shocked’ by the news, but this reaction came to be placed in a very strange light when the weekly Vrij Nederland revealed that the Estel plans were certainly not of recent origin and that the government must have known about them at least since March 27, 1974. Andre Kloos, who is presumed to represent the interests of workers on the board of Supervisory Directors of Estel, came forward with his now familiar four conditions:

1. there must be no discrimination on basis of race or color in the recruitment of staff;
2. there are no differences in remuneration on the grounds of race or color;
3. equal opportunities exist for everyone in respect of education and training;
4. The right to active participation in free trade unions is guaranteed for all workers.

“In formulating these conditions, Kloos had interpreted the official attitude of the Dutch trade union movement. The government, in the person of the Minister for Economic Affairs, Lubbers, promptly took over these conditions.

“Lubbers stated that the government was not able to prevent a possible investment by the firm in South Africa without further ado since the state did not have a majority interest in Estel. In an IKOR television programme subsequently he however declared that the Dutch authorities would be in a position to make things very difficult for Estel if it wished to pursue its aims against the wishes of the government”.

I am not able to make the end note on this saga except to say that by the end of the 1970’s neoliberalism had taken grip of the world economy and it was in the interest of capital investors to be rid of Apartheid in order to pursue their free trade, privatization and outsourcing agenda. I was not afforded the privilege of following this story to its end given the circumstances that developed after my fateful underground mission to South Africa in southern winter of 1975.

But I am able to give the account of how this action against Estel came onto the radar in the first place. Once I was able to organize beyond the terrain of the Dutch Anti Apartheid Movement with the network of Henri Curiel’s Solidarité based in Paris, both my organizational potential within Holland and in Europe in general expanded dramatically. The first was interesting and throws some light on the sometimes central role played by Breyten Breytenbach.

Breyten had his admirers situated not only among beautiful women, but also serious students of the Afrikaans language. One of these, Adriaan van Dis, was encouraged by Breyten to make contact with me to see what role he could play in supporting our new plan to set up a global coordination centre for Anti Apartheid Movements based on the approach to sanctions developed by the Dutch movement based in Amsterdam. Adriaan approached me and I immediately seized the opportunity to strengthen our cultural boycott work given the fact that he was working at the South Africa Institute, which was the cultural arm of the South African Embassy in Den Haag.

Shortly after this Adriaan approached me in a manner becoming of the training he had received in clandestine operations in Paris, and set up a liaison with me at a secret time and a secret place. He came to this venue at the agreed upon time with a double bottomed briefcase. Out of it he towered up a number of documents. He requested that I scrutinize these as they had to be placed back from where they came, in the safe of director of the South Africa Institute. Adriaan was a fast learner!

One of the documents struck my imagination not unlike a magic wand that could spark tumble a major project in the making on ruins. It was a confidential letter from an Estel director that bore the stamp marks of the South African Embassy. The director was requesting advice on the plan of the Dutch blast furnace Hoogovens to import a consignment of iron ore from Sishen to test the viability of future large scale imports.

This I found remarkable and immediately I convened a meeting of the Sanctions Task Team of the movement, but this time bolstered by comrades from Paris. At the time we were in a transition phase of the anti apartheid sanctions programme of the Dutch movement focused on getting active support from militants within South Africa. The prospect of a huge iron ore export industry in the making bore all the hallmarks we had isolated for viable projects that could be generated from within South Africa and taken up abroad among exile groups. So we called for a consultation with a member of Solidarité, Donald Moerdyk. The problem was the strength and sensitivity of the information Adriaan presented. Was it sufficient to trick the Estel director into an admission? Would it compromise Adriaan as the source? After some discussion with Moerdyk, Breyten’s 2ic in Paris, we decided to kick in our contacts organized in Rouen, Amsterdam and Hamburg harbors. Solidarité had one of its own network members active in Rouen, Johnny Makatini had deployed an MK cadre to do intelligence work in Rotterdam, and through the Dutch trade union comrades we were able to flex out the intelligence action through cadre of the German Communist Party, DKP in Hamburg.

This planning session, lasting a few hours, soon bore fruit. Within a week we received reports from all three contacts that there was an iron ore tanker on its way through the Atlantic to an unnamed European port. This looked suspicious but not unlike may such reports where commodities were traded while on board at sea and the destination to be determined by future market prices.

Back in Amsterdam we followed this progress of this iron ore carrier with great interest. It bypassed Rouen, then bypassed Rotterdam but then went to port in Hamburg. Within a day of its arrival in Hamburg we got a report. The comrades had accessed the bill of lading. It was Sishen iron ore that set sail from a South African port. The ore was destined for the German blast furnace, Hoescht.

We had enough to consider our action strategy. Going to the press was an instinctive response to the worst type of activist we were trying to fight down in our movements in Europe at the time. These were not really activists, but pseudo activists who, after scooping a major story, would immediately resurface as prized investigative journalists. Invariably they stole the thunder of the movements and blow action alternatives.

However, on this occasion we felt that this juggernaut coming onto the radar, this massive plan to export iron ore from South Africa was in operation and could best be fished and fleshed out by hitting at it with a surprise move. Therefore, once we had assembled the main story line, and Adriaan got himself out of the line of fire, we phoned a Dutch journalist working at De Volkskrant, and explained to him what we had. The plan emerged that he, the journalist, an entirely trustworthy person who never hijacked but always gave credit to the real source and acted in a planned action scenario, would give this Estel director a telephone call just before the Volkskrant would go to press. The story was prepared and all that was needed was confirmation from the Estel director.

The action went off as planned with the desired effects. The Dutch Anti Apartheid Movement had a reputation for landing people in jail for breaking official sanctions against Rhodesia, or publicly pilloried when caught lying about anything. So the director spilled the beans – he admitted that the story was true!

The action that followed was swift. Within a week the Dutch workforce at Hoogovens were out in force. Hoogovens backed out of the deal and denied it was ever involved. They shifted the blame to Hoescht who they said had gone ahead with the import of South African iron ore without their knowledge.

This Saldanha-Sishen story had a lengthy denouement. Today I am looking back and thinking twice whether, after all, the Dutch trade unionist Kloos was not right. We had socialism on the brain; we had the Freedom Charter as blueprint. Did or dedicated action result in anything like that?

Definitely not! Today Kumba Iron Ore mine rakes in the billions. The trains from Sishen keep pulling in like a gigantic centipede with hundreds of hoppers full to the brim with precious African earth pouring into the terminals at Saldanha bay.