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Environmentalists keep up fight against coal mine

Environmentalists have argued that the Mpumalanga government acted unlawfully by granting environmental authorisation to an Indian company linked to President Jacob Zuma’s nephews.

The Centre for Environmental Rights (CER) has lodged an appeal with Mpumalanga agriculture, rural development, land and environmental affairs MEC Vusi Shongwe in its bid to stop Atha-Africa Ventures from establishing its Yzermyn coal mine in an environmentally sensitive area in Mabola near Wakkerstroom.

Atha-Africa Ventures is in partnership with Bashubile Trust – which has as its trustees Sizwe Christopher Zuma, Vincent Gezinhliziyo Zuma and Thabiso Mpofu.

The Zumas are the president’s nephews.

Mabola was declared a protected area under the National Environmental Management: Protected Areas Act for its biodiversity and being a wetland, which is the source of three rivers – the Vaal, Tugela and Pongola.

A chief director in the environmental unit granted the authorisation last year when this unit fell under the provincial department of finance, economic development and environment affairs and the MEC was Eric Kholwane.

City Press was barred from attending the appeal at Nutting House Lodge in Mbombela, but has seen the CER’s heads of argument.

The CER’s mining programme head, Catherine Horsfield, argued that “the chief director acted without lawful authority when he granted the environmental authorisation under authority granted by the MEC”.

The CER argued, among other things, that the environmental authorisation should be withdrawn because:

. Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa remained the competent authority in respect of an environmental authorisation application;

. The environmental authorisation was granted in the face of material concerns on the part of other state organs such as the department of environmental affairs (DEA) and the department of water and sanitation (DWS) with direct regulatory interest in the project, and they were not engaged;

. The Environmental Impact Assessment Report (EIAR) did assess all the activities triggered by the project, which are listed in the environmental impact assessment regulations;

. The EIAR does not contain proper and objective assessment of the negative impacts of the project on people’s environmental rights, and fails to identify the adverse impacts of the project, which are likely to unfairly discriminate against poor rural communities who are dependent on natural resources for their livelihood; and

. The EIAR did not contain all the information necessary for the competent authority to consider the application and reach a decision.

Atha-Africa vice-president Praveer Triphati declined to provide the company’s heads of argument.

“During the appeal hearing … the chairperson of the appeal panel requested the respective parties to abstain from releasing any media statements until such time the MEC [Shongwe] has effected a decision. Atha-Africa has every intention to respect and adhere to the chairperson’s request,” Triphati said.

The Mpumalanga government granted Atha-Africa the environmental authorisation after former finance, economic development and environment MEC, Pinky Phosa, had been redeployed to Parliament in 2016.

Phosa had declined to grant Atha-Africa the environmental authorisation on the grounds that the mining site had been declared a protected area. The Mpumalanga government granted the authorisation after the environment unit was moved to the agriculture department.

City Press has seen documents where DEA and DWS officials initially opposed Atha-Africa’s application to establish the mine. They later changed their tune and former mineral resources minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi granted the company its mining permit.

They and Atha-Africa have denied that the department granted them permits because of their relationship with the president.

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