Saiccor - The First 50 Years 5.8 MB - Sappi

The Campbell Period (1986–1987)
In February 1986 discussions took place with Thermex, a
Johannesburg company run by Chris Barnard, on making activated
carbon from Saiccor effluent� The concept was the brainchild of Dr
Illeri Seppa, an exceedingly bright Finnish chemical engineer� Illeri
was an ebullient ‘ideas man’, but with a poor command of English,
which often caused great embarrassment� Laboratory work progressed
successfully� By early 1987 it was decided to build a pilot plant on a
joint venture basis between Saiccor and Thermex� Saiccor hired
Malcolm Simpson (Derek’s brother), a young chemical engineer, to
work on the pilot plant, and Mike Howlett was the engineering
advisor� Illeri Seppa led the team� The pilot plant produced a high
purity carbon that was suitable for further processing to activated
carbon� By-products included fermentable sugars suitable for
converting to alcohols or protein� However, by May 1989 it was
concluded that full-scale exploitation of the process was not
commercially attractive and all work on the project stopped� Seppa
wrote a scientific paper on the work, where in the final
acknowledgement his poor command of English, coupled with his
exuberant confidence, led to a typical faux pas:
‘…and finally to Mike Howlett, technical projects manager for Sappi-
Saiccor, who assessed and corrected the drafts of this paper into native
English language and who is largely responsible for its total lack of
comprehensibility�’
By the middle of 1986 the black trade union SAWU started expressing
discontent with the job grades (which had been established by
management) at Saiccor� When management tried to circumvent the
issue, the union became more adamant until management finally agreed
in November 1986 to regrade all jobs in the wage earning category
according to the internationally accepted Patterson system� This was
an enormous undertaking, as many of the jobs had no job description�
At the same time, November 1986, the random breathalyser was
introduced at Saiccor, following an accident in the boiler house in
which an outside contractor died� Although the Inspector of
Machinery, Colin Murphy, did not apportion any blame to Saiccor,
he asked what steps were being taken to prevent people under the
influence entering the factory� The breathalyser was not well received!
Even today, after being in constant operation for 15 years, it is still
the subject of fierce criticism, as many people have been dismissed as
a result of its reading�
In August 1986 Saiccor had a visit from the Department of Health
informing us that both local residents and the press had become more
sensitive to air pollution from Saiccor� Consultants were engaged to
measure sulphur dioxide emissions from all stacks and sulphur dioxide
levels in the surrounding communities� Once the results were known,
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