{"id":872794,"date":"2026-09-01T09:41:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T07:41:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=872794"},"modified":"2026-09-01T09:41:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T07:41:21","slug":"major-south-african-company-tied-to-1000-deaths-per-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/872794\/major-south-african-company-tied-to-1000-deaths-per-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Major South African company tied to 1,000 deaths per year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Pollution from Sasol Ltd.\u2019s flagship Secunda plant has been tied to about 1,000 deaths a year, a study by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air<\/a> shows. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The vast coal-to-fuels and chemicals complex, which lies 140 kilometres east of Johannesburg, is the world\u2019s biggest single-site emitter of climate-warming gases. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also pumps out pollutants, including sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide, and particulate matter.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAir pollutant emissions from Sasol Secunda are associated with a substantial public health burden\u201d Crea said in its study titled\u00a0The Hidden Costs of Coal-to-Liquids in South Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe burden includes mortality, acute respiratory illness, chronic disease, adverse birth outcomes, child health impacts and productivity losses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The findings published Monday were based on Johannesburg-based Sasol\u2019s last financial year and are the latest indication of the impact of air pollution in South Africa, which has the most carbon-intensive economy of any of the Group of 20 large economies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe will study the report and comment in due course.\u201d Sasol spokesman Alex Anderson said.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the government faces pressure to tighten emission rules, it\u2019s said it also has to consider the impact of stricter legislation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two biggest polluters \u2014 Eskom and Sasol \u2014 are integral to the economy. State-owned Eskom provides most of the country\u2019s electricity, while Sasol produces about a third of its motor fuel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Studies ordered by South Africa\u2019s government have found that pollution from the two companies harmed children\u2019s health. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2022, a High Court ruled that the authorities\u2019 failure to stem emissions breached the public\u2019s constitutional right to clean air. Eskom has conceded that its pollution causes deaths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secunda produced 112,000 tons of sulfur dioxide and 77,000 tons of nitrogen dioxides in its most recent year, as well as thousands of tons of particulate matter, its own figures show. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sasol has won exemptions from South Africa\u2019s pollution laws, which are already much more lax than those in Europe and China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSasol Secunda\u2019s emissions are particularly high, in part because it has been granted alternative sulfur dioxide emission limits that are less stringent than South Africa\u2019s minimum emission standards,\u201d Crea said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secunda\u2019s stacks, or chimneys, are permitted to emit between 1,400 and 1,700 milligrams of sulfur dioxide per normal cubic meter, compared with South Africa\u2019s general limit of 1,000 milligrams. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By contrast, China\u2019s limit is 35 milligrams while the European Union\u2019s limits range up to 165 milligrams, according to Crea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The research organisation estimated that the plant\u2019s operations cause health-related economic damage of about R16.1 billion annually. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pollution causes thousands of cases of asthma and, in some cases, results in children being born with low birth weights before full term, it said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sasol’s Secunda plant has been linked to roughly 1,000 deaths per year, according to a new study.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":859149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2094692138697064523","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2192640094889723","_sma_instagram_post_id":"17901144900565315","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9874],"tags":[26343,2240,26176],"class_list":["post-872794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-alex-anderson","tag-sasol","tag-secunda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=872794"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":872797,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872794\/revisions\/872797"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/859149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}