REPORT LAUNCH – Toxic Legacies: Holding Multinational Giants Accountable for Historic Pollution

Decades of mining during British colonialism made Kabwe, Zambia, the world’s most polluted town and a UN-designated ‘sacrifice zone’. Generations have suffered life-threatening lead poisoning which affects women and children in particular. Now, 140,000 women and children have filed a class action against mining giant AngloAmerican. With a critical appeal hearing just days away on November 3-4, this event examines whether the case can proceed—and what it would mean for corporate accountability worldwide.

Watch the live stream here.

This panel explored the history of lead pollution in Kabwe, including the social and ecological impact on local communities, and examined corporate accountability and legal routes for remedy ahead of the appeal hearing in early November, which aims to certify the class action in South Africa (allowing it to proceed). This case could set a landmark precedent for holding multinational corporations accountable for enduring ecological harms.

The widespread lead pollution from historic mining activities is a colonial legacy which has afflicted the health of the Kabwe community for generations. Lead poisoning can cause serious and often irreversible damage to organs and the neurological system. A class of 12 representative Claimants have instructed South African attorneys Mbuyisa Moleele and UK law firm Leigh Day to bring the case against AngloAmerican plc, the London-headquartered mining giant. Although the class action was dismissed by the Johannesburg High Court in 2023, an appeal is being heard on 3^rd and 4^th November this year.

A new report co-written by Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA) and Environment Africa, alongside London Mining Network (LMN) and Rights and Accountability in Development (RAID) was publicly launched at this event and made available to attendees.

Speakers:

• Richard Meeran (Leigh Day) is co-head of the Leigh Day’s International and Group Litigation Department, and is working with Mbuyisa Moleele Attorneys on the class-action. Richard pioneered litigation against multinational parent companies, starting in the mid 90s with claims against Cape PLC for 7,500 South African asbestos miners and Thor Chemicals for South African workers poisoned by mercury.

• Zainab Rahim (RAID) joined RAID in 2020, a corporate watchdog which holds companies to account for human rights and environmental harms. She has an MA in Postcolonial Culture & Global Policy and her dissertation focused on the slow ecological violence and access to justice in the Kabwe lead poisoning case.
• Walker Syachalinga (Leigh Day) is an Associate Solicitor in Leigh Day’s International and Groups Claims Department. He is Zambian and originates from Kabwe.
• Ashfaq Khalfan (GSoS) is Director of the Sustainability Regulation Observatory of the LSE Global School of Sustainability (GSoS).

Chair: Marie Petersmann (LSE Law School) is Assistant Professor of Law at LSE Law School and Co-Leader of the LSE/GSoS Sustainability Law Clinic.

This event was co-hosted by the LSE Global School of Sustainability (GSoS) and Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA). ACTSA is the successor to the Britain’s anti-apartheid movement with a mission to work in solidarity with Southern African civil society organisations and activists across the region and the UK, so that the legacies of colonialism, racism and apartheid are replaced with justice, human rights and peace.