When arsonists set fire to the United Phosphorus Limited (UPL) chemical plant in Durban on July 12, not only did they ignite a potent cocktail of chemical compounds but they set in motion a chain of events that could shift the country’s environmental landscape.

For about 12 days the acrid fumes permeated homes and businesses and tainted kilometres of beaches and coastal environment, in what national minister of forestry and fisheries and environmental affairs Barbara Creecy on Sunday described as “the most serious environmental catastrophe in recent times”. 

What those instigators who torched the Cornubia warehouse — allegedly in the pursuit of freeing former president Jacob Zuma from his 15-month prison term — don’t know was that they unwittingly smoked out the illicit operations of the Mumbai-based multinational. ..