A group of nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) and landowners in the Wakkerstroom and Luneburg areas of Mpumalanga have filed two High Court applications to have the coal prospecting rights which the former Department of Minerals and Energy (DME) awarded Delta Mining Company rescinded.
The prospecting rights cover properties in the Wakkerstroom area as well as in the Pongola Forest Reserve and the Paardeplaats Nature Reserve, which are Protected Natural Areas.
“[Legislation] currently makes provision that mining or prospecting permits may not be granted on declared protected areas, raising significant concerns regarding the regulatory failure of the legislation and the implementing authorities,” the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) says in a statement.
The High Court application to overturn the prospecting permits is said to be important not only because of the sensitivity of the greater Wakkerstroom area, “but also because of the precedent that needs to be set with the South African government that mining in extremely sensitive areas should not be permitted”.
The WWF and the associated partners say that they are not antimining: however, they argue that there is currently a regulatory failure within government in terms of protecting envi- ronmental and social interests when it comes to mining.
“It is the concern of a range of civil society orga- nisations that, throughout the country, mining permits are being granted without due process according to the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act,” the groups state.
The WWF says that the judicial review process is a case built on merit that seeks the setting aside of all the prospecting permits granted in favour of Delta Mining Company.
“The urgent interdict route was purposefully avoided, to avoid the case being thrown out on a trivial technicality, and to seek that both applications are reviewed on their merit – which forms the basis of a very solid case with high levels of confidence for a hearing in our favour,” the organisations add.
The groups opposing the granting of the prospecting licences include WWF South Africa, BirdLife South Africa, the Botanical Society, and a number of landowners in the area.
The organisations says that a copy of the mining company’s environmental management plan (EMP), authorised by the DME, reveals that no consultation took place with environmental NGOs, actual landowners or the greater Wakkerstroom community.
“This document also states there are no threatened species on the sites, yet Wakker- stroom is a designated Important Bird Area, with a large number of endemic and threatened bird species present in the grasslands,” the groups add.
The concerned parties highlight that there is “strong opposition” to Delta Mining’s proposed operations.
“The long-term impacts of mining in this area will have devastating impacts on future water security for South Africa and displace thousands of existing and future jobs that rely on the rangeland agricultural practices and tourism potential of the area,” says the WWF.
The groups add that downstream users will suffer the effects of pollution from coal and torbanite-mining at the headwaters of the river systems on which they rely for survival, and state that the mining company has failed to consider the impact their operations will have on the exist- ing sustainable agricultural practices and the growing tourism and hospitality industry.
The objections to mining in the area are rela- ted to the impacts that the mine would have on the area, such as trucking or transporting coal through a small town which is reliant on tourism and has weak road infrastructure.
There are also significant concerns about mine acid water leaching into the water table and the Wakkerstroom wetland. This would affect numerous wetlands in the greater area and the hydrological integrity of the area as a whole, the organisations explain.
The concerned parties also highlight that rare and endangered species of plants and animals, like the oribi, the wattled crane, Rudd’s lark, Botha’s lark and the blue crane, could be at risk of losing their foothold in one of South Africa’s most famous Important Bird Areas if mining is ever allowed in the area.
It is felt that mining so close to the town of Wakkerstroom will negatively affect the current economic driver, namely tourism, which is strongly linked to the wetland and its birding attractions.
“The high-altitude moist grasslands that extend across the boundaries of KwaZulu-Natal, the Free State and Mpumalanga host extraordinarily high levels of biodiversity and endemicity, and deliver numerous important ecosystem services, such as water production and livestock grazing,” says the WWF.
The grasslands in the greater Wakkerstroom area have been identified as ‘irreplaceable’ through several national conservation planning exercises. In addition, their hydrological value has also been highlighted.
The Enkangala Grassland Project of the WWF and the Botanical Society has been established to ensure farmers and other landowners conti- nue farming as they currently do through access to funding and promoting ecotourism. The area targeted by the Enkangala Grassland Project represents one of the largest remaining contiguous pieces of relatively untransformed grassland in Southern Africa.
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