South African activist Desmond D’Sa dies in accident
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on TimesLIVE
South African environmental activist Desmond D’Sa, 70, died in a car accident with two family members on the southern KwaZulu-Natal coast. A 2014 Goldman Prize winner, he secured the closure of a hazardous landfill in Chatsworth, according to TimesLIVE.
South African environmental activist Desmond D’Sa died on Thursday in a traffic accident on the southern KwaZulu-Natal coast, TimesLIVE reported. Aged 70, he worked for the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA), which supports residents exposed to industrial pollution.
Two members of his family were also killed in the accident while travelling to the SDCEA offices in Wentworth. D’Sa received the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2014 for his campaign against the expansion of a hazardous waste landfill on Bulbul Drive, in the Chatsworth neighbourhood.
According to the Goldman Environmental Foundation, he helped local residents examine expansion plans, obtain legal support and measure air quality using simple equipment. The operator’s expansion application was withdrawn in August 2010, before the landfill closed in November 2011.
His activism also led to an attack on his home: unidentified attackers set fire to his house, injuring him and traumatising his family. Born in Cato Manor in 1956, D’Sa had worked in the textile industry and as a security manager before becoming a trade unionist and then a community organiser in south Durban.
