Blair’s Junket

Blair’s Junket

Blair’s junket to Johannesburg contains a number of his corporate cronies, including Bill Alexander, chief executive of Thames Water, Sir Robert Wilson, executive chairman of mining company Rio Tinto, and Chris Fay, non-executive director of Anglo American, another of the world’s mining giants.

The three companies have been involved in a number of high-profile and damaging accusations over their environmental record.

Thames Water, the largest water company in the UK with 12 million customers, has been prosecuted by the UK Government’s Environment Agency watchdog for pollution on more than 20 occasions since 1996. It has also been fiercely criticised in the past for operating in Indonesia while President Suharto was in power.

Rio Tinto, the largest mining conglomerate in the world, is well known for its poor environmental record in many parts of the world – including in Southern Africa. It is currently pursuing a uranium mine at a World Heritage Site in Australia.

Mining giant Anglo American has been embroiled with planned operations in Peru and pollution in Zambia. The company, once a pillar of apartheid South Africa, has left behind a legacy of billions of dollars of damage to the environment and communities around Johannesburg itself, and is only beginning to respond to community pressure demanding AIDS treatment for employees.

A leaked EU report shows why they are going. Privatisation of services under GATS is on the table in Sandton, as well as an opportunity for business to cleanse its image.

Meanwhile, most South Africans will continue to confront the effects of these policies cutting off water and electricity to millions of people, as the privatised Earth Summit in Sandton celebrates itself.