A group of Durban residents has urged the KwaZulu-Natal Division of the High Court to authorise a class action lawsuit against the Indian agrochemicals giant UPL for health injuries and financial damage they allegedly suffered after a toxic pesticide inferno.

The local subsidiary company of the Mumbai-based UPL agrochemicals group is putting up a fight against a court application that would open the door for a class action lawsuit for damages. This comes in the aftermath of the massive chemical fire in Durban during the 2021 July insurrection.

Lawyers acting for the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance and 12 local residents told Judge Jacqueline Henriques that a class action - a relatively new legal mechanism in this country - would serve the interests of justice.

"Having patently caused major and unprecedented harm to the members of the proposed classes, on the back of an environmental catastrophe, [UPL] appears to be unwilling to take responsibility for the harm that it has caused the human beings that are at the heart of this matter.

"The fact that the majority of such persons are also likely to be among the poorest of the poor compounds the situation," they argued.

But UPL has engaged a team of attorneys and four advocates to block the proposed class action, arguing that it was the real victim and that the class action route could enable some of the very "looters" who set its warehouse on fire to...