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Speaker 1: And so now we turn our attention to your community

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Speaker 1: news and we have to welcome to the show. Yana

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Speaker 1: skipis and Yana is from Paul Post. She's a journalist.

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Speaker 1: Now you know. In this community news segment, we chat

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Speaker 1: with our friends from the press for hyper local news

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Speaker 1: that matters, and we hear one story that has the

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Speaker 1: community talking. This is quite a serious one. So I'm

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Speaker 1: going to just hand over and say good morning to Yana. Morning, Yana,

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Speaker 1: please tell us about the story that you're highlighting today.

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Speaker 1: And Yara, South.

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Speaker 2: Africa, good morning. Thank you for having me. So in

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Speaker 2: a nutshell, we've been covering this specific topic since at

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Speaker 2: least twenty eighteen. There is an environmental activist local Poul

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Speaker 2: resident been alleging, you've been alleging four years that that

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Speaker 2: has a plant or a factory year in Paul has

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Speaker 2: been operating sort of illegally because of the toxins they

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Speaker 2: used to mix the fertilizer in in this factory, and

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Speaker 2: and that they're not using the correct procedures to not

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Speaker 2: to to not spread the toxins so that people breathe

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Speaker 2: it in and so forth. So Yora is an international

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Speaker 2: agricultural company with a lot of branches in the EU

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Speaker 2: and Americas, also in Africa, and then it has a

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Speaker 2: facility here in poll where fertilizer is being blended before sold.

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Speaker 1: It's a son because he's he's raised some really serious

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Speaker 1: concerns about the operation, saying that not only does it

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Speaker 1: expose residents to harmful substances, but he's also alleging that

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Speaker 1: the Darkenstein municipality has protected the company and actually alleged

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Speaker 1: is that sorry, reports have been falsified.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, there's there's there's quite a few allegations. He alleges

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Speaker 2: that the local municipality doesn't do anything about it, that

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Speaker 2: also the relevant state bodies, national state bodies or provincial

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Speaker 2: state bodies are also not doing anything, and that they

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Speaker 2: have not signed off on on on on on your operating. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: and that your is ignoring you know, all the yeah,

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Speaker 2: all the state bodies telling them not to not to

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Speaker 2: blend it and not to operate yere, and that the

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Speaker 2: municipality is is supporting them. Residents are quite uh divided.

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Speaker 2: There's some that agree with them, especially in the immediate

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Speaker 2: area where the SACTU falls in, because obviously no one

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Speaker 2: wants to breathe in toxic chemicals and substances. But then

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Speaker 2: there's also people that call him a keyboard warrior for example,

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Speaker 2: So so yeah, it's it's quite a mixed bag in

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Speaker 2: relation to what his what his claims are, and if

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Speaker 2: he has any support. We are not sure we've reached

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Speaker 2: up him since basically we started to cover the story

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Speaker 2: in twenty eighteen twenty nineteen, but he has not provided

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Speaker 2: comment yet, so we're not sure where where he gets

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Speaker 2: the claims from.

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Speaker 1: See, there isn't any sort of evidence that he is

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Speaker 1: sharing that supports these claims.

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Speaker 2: So he's not really sharing it online. What he is

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Speaker 2: sharing is is that maybe emails he sent to a

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Speaker 2: municipality or to or to relevant other relevant state bodies

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Speaker 2: and their responses to him. But as to evidence, no,

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Speaker 2: not really.

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Speaker 1: We're talking to Jana Skippers from Paul Poet about a

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Speaker 1: story in your community news segment today where your South

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Speaker 1: Africa is taking legal action against a pall environmental activist.

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Speaker 1: What led this environmental activist to start raising these concerns

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Speaker 1: about your South Africa operations in Charleston Hill.

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Speaker 2: So we are also also not sure about that again

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Speaker 2: because we do not get coming from him. But it

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Speaker 2: basically in a natchall, when Yora came here and they

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Speaker 2: opened this this factory, there was a lot of people

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Speaker 2: that was concerned because of the chemicals, so they would

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Speaker 2: have been meetings, you know, with Yara and the ward

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Speaker 2: councilor and the municipality to try and inform the public

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Speaker 2: of their concerns. So, if you know, I think it

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Speaker 2: comes from that show, Orange just took it a step

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Speaker 2: further and actively activ against this factory.

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Speaker 1: You know, this sounds like it's quite a tricky story

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Speaker 1: to cover, and you guys have been covering it since

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Speaker 1: twenty eighteen. Tell us a little bit about just the

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Speaker 1: experience of covering a story where you're not really kidding.

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Speaker 1: A lot of a lot of information or co operation,

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Speaker 1: I would say, from all the parties involved.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so a lot of our reporting would handle about

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Speaker 2: what would be about the municipal procedures and the feedback

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Speaker 2: the municipality would give us, for example, public meetings or

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Speaker 2: council meetings. But then the factory also invited us for

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Speaker 2: a visit to their factory, so we could also see

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Speaker 2: how they operate and what they do and report from

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Speaker 2: that point of view. With this latest article we've we've

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Speaker 2: relied heavily on on this Orange's social media presence, so

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Speaker 2: he he did say on social media that he received

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Speaker 2: as he's in assist letter. So we brought that in

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Speaker 2: because we could not get comment from him, and then

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Speaker 2: obviously reached out to Yora and they said that they

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Speaker 2: can't provide much comment because the matter is with the

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Speaker 2: legal team, but they they can confirm that a legal

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Speaker 2: process is happening currently.

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Speaker 1: Then I've just got in a text year from Eugene

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Speaker 1: Lowe saying, Hi, Saskia, the r factory closed here and

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Speaker 1: was moved to Cape Town, so now just cleaning up.

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Speaker 1: And that's Eugene in Paul, can you comment on that.

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Speaker 2: So recently they have just started to dismantle the factory

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Speaker 2: and that as a concern from the public. They are

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Speaker 2: starting to break it down and take it down, dismantle everything.

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Speaker 2: But now the public is asking where does the toxic

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Speaker 2: chemicals go? You know, does it just evaporate into the

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Speaker 2: air and causes you know, issues for when for for

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Speaker 2: when Paul residents breathe it in. So so yeah, that's

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Speaker 2: where the process is UNSI standing.

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Speaker 1: And will you guys continue to cover the story in

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Speaker 1: Paul Post Yanna.

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Speaker 2: Most definitely yes as new developments come.

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Speaker 1: In fantastic Thank you so much for chatting to us today.

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Speaker 1: That's Janna Skippis Paul Post journalists