In spite of their recently green-washed identities, huge multinational companies such as Shell and BP, who are earning more than the entire South African economy turns over, have little incentive not to continue polluting a community and ecosystem in South Durban.

The scenario clearly illustrates a familiar universal pattern where the “big fish” in the globalisation “pond” take advantage of weaker economies to increase their power. Cheaper labour and lax laws allow them to cut costs and compromise the safety standards they are expected to comply with in more economically powerful countries in the North.