Desmond D'Sa dies in R106 crash. Who he was and why Durban mourns

Durban environmental activist Desmond D'Sa has died in a car crash on the R106, along with his son Rodney D'Sa and his sister-in-law Patsy Bishop. The crash happened on Thursday, 29 October 2026 (IOL, Mail & Guardian).

D'Sa, who founded and led the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA), spent more than 30 years fighting pollution from refineries and factories in south Durban. He won the Goldman Environmental Prize, an international award for grassroots environmental activists, in 2014 (Goldman Environmental Prize).

His funeral details had not been confirmed by Saturday, 31 October (IOL).

What happened on the R106?

D'Sa was travelling from his home in Umzinto and was due to lead a protest at Eskom's offices in Durban. A trailer reportedly came loose from a tractor and crashed into the car he was in (IOL).

The national Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment announced the deaths on Thursday (Mail & Guardian).

Who was Desmond D'Sa?

He was born in Cato Manor in 1956. Under apartheid his family was forcibly removed and ended up in Wentworth, a suburb that sits next to refineries and heavy industry (Mail & Guardian). The Goldman Prize says he was 15 at the time (Goldman Environmental Prize).

Before activism he worked in the textile and chemical industries, including at Sasol's Isipingo plant, and was a trade unionist. That work showed him what chemicals did to workers and the people living nearby (Mail & Guardian).

SDCEA grew into an alliance of 21 community groups from areas including the Bluff, Isipingo, Umlazi, Wentworth and Merebank (Mail & Guardian). He was still listed as its coordinator (SDCEA).

What did he achieve?

His best-known win was the closure of the Bulbul Drive landfill in Chatsworth, a hazardous waste site whose operator had applied to extend its lease to 2021. D'Sa organised residents, taught them to log smells and take their own air samples, and the dump was shut (Goldman Environmental Prize, NPR).

Sources: Mail & Guardian, Goldman Environmental Prize. He also received an honorary doctorate from the Durban University of Technology (Mail & Guardian).

He took the fight abroad too, buying shares in multinationals so he could question their bosses at shareholder meetings, and joining protests against Shell in London and The Hague (Mail & Guardian).

It cost him. His home was petrol-bombed in 2008 while he was at a government meeting in Pretoria (Mail & Guardian).

Why does south Durban matter so much?

About 70% of Durban's industry is in the south of the city, which has more than 300 industrial-scale facilities and about 300,000 residents, according to the Goldman Prize. The area became known as "cancer valley" because of high rates of cancer, asthma and bronchitis (Goldman Environmental Prize).

D'Sa never argued against jobs. "We are not anti-development, but we are anti-air-pollution," he once said (Mail & Guardian).

What have leaders and his family said?

Deputy environment minister Narend Singh called his death "a great loss for the entire environmental movement" (Mail & Guardian). KwaZulu-Natal premier Thamsanqa Ntuli said the province had lost "a courageous son" (Mail & Guardian).

In a statement on Saturday, the family said they had lost "three precious lives" in one moment and asked the public to keep them in their thoughts (IOL).