Africa Wild

Mordor at the gates: The ploy to strip-mine Selati Game Reserve

By Kevin Bloom• 8 April 2021


A view of Selati Game Reserve. (Photo: Facebook)

In August 2020, out of the blue, the owners of the 28,000-hectare Selati Game Reserve received word that a company called Tiara Mining had plans to excavate a series of open-cast pits on their land. The mining application was at an advanced stage, it seemed, which was strange — no one from Tiara Mining had ever set foot on the conservancy. And so began a battle that would unearth a litany of contradictions.

Between the towns of Gravelotte and Phalaborwa in Limpopo Province, on an outcrop of low granite hills, grows a species of African cycad that is to be found nowhere else on the planet. The plant, listed under CITES Appendix 1 — code for “most endangered,” which means that 183 countries have agreed to afford it the highest level of protection — is itemised officially as Encephalartos dyerianus, but is known colloquially as the Lillie Cycad. On the regulated market, as evidence of the extinction threat, a juvenile plant will set you back around R210,000.

If the environmental impact assessment (EIA) is anything to go by, the fact that these hills are located in the Selati Game Reserve appears to have escaped the directors of Tiara Mining — a company headquartered in Plettenberg Bay that claims to have secured prospecting rights on the land.


Lions in Selati Game Reserve. (Photo: Supplied)

On page 109 of the EIA, it states only that Encephalartos dyerianus can be found in Phalaborwa’s “open grasslands”. In the entirety of the 441-page EIA, despite the rights covering around 10,000 hectares in the north of the conservancy, the Selati Game Reserve is mentioned fewer than five times. The scoping report, on the other hand, which was submitted by Tiara Mining to the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) in October 2020, does not mention the reserve at all.

“In the middle of last year, out of the blue, we discovered that this company had a mining right application on our land,” Alan du Toit, a director of Selati Game Reserve, told Daily Maverick. “Not one of our owners has ever been contacted by Tiara Mining.”

Given the resources that had been invested in the conservation project, Du Toit’s concern was easy to understand. Selati, a “Big Five” reserve, was constituted in 1993, when a group of landowners dropped the fences on 13 adjacent farms. Covering an area of 28,000 hectares on the western border of the Kruger National Park, the footprint was kept purposely low — in the early years, instead of opening the conservancy to the public, the owners funded the operation by auctioning sable antelope, which had always been endemic to the area. Recently, as the market for sable has dropped off, the annual operating costs have been covered by levies, with anti-poaching measures accounting for the largest proportion of costs.

But, again, this was never intended as a private playground. The Selati Wilderness Foundation, a non-profit company, was established to retain the ecosystem in its pristine natural state. Among the projects run by the foundation is an elephant management programme, which has become necessary given that elephant numbers have grown to 140 from the 68 that were reintroduced between 1996 and 2002; a cheetah introduction programme, which was kicked off by an agreement with SANParks in 2015; and an education initiative called “Bush Buddies,” which facilitates in-depth ecological engagement for learners from culturally diverse backgrounds.

“We also have quite a successful population of black rhino on the reserve,” said Du Toit, although, for obvious reasons, he could not divulge the numbers. “We were one of the first reserves to receive black rhino from KwaZulu-Natal and we have an agreement with the province’s wildlife agency to preserve them, funded by WWF.”

Now, however, added to the R12-million a year it costs to run Selati, the owners are being forced to fund the battle with Tiara Mining — an outlay, according to Du Toit, that has so far come to “a considerable sum,” which only covers initial comments from the lawyers and environmental consultants.

The latter, handled by the Pretoria-based group Bokamoso, does not paint a pretty picture:


The Selati Wilderness Foundation, a non-profit company, was established to retain the ecosystem in its pristine natural state. (Photo: Supplied)

“It appears that the updated [final scoping report] included outstanding information identified by Bokamoso and other objectors on a retrospective basis and that such late inclusion and addressing of the information was a mere ‘window dressing’ exercise and a ‘ticking of boxes’ initiative in order to ensure compliance with the legal prescriptions of the integrated application process….

“What is even more concerning is the fact that there is still uncertainty regarding the validity of the ‘so-called’ prospecting rights referred to by the EAP [environmental assessment practitioner]. This issue was raised by Bokamoso from the outset.”

The problem, according to Bokamoso, lay with the company that had been retained by Tiara Mining to prepare the necessary paperwork for submission to the DMRE. In a nutshell, Bokamoso alleged that the EAP — a company trading as Sakal and Tebo (Pty) Ltd — had submitted a scoping report that was “fatally flawed,” with key information missing and “an inaccurate description of the proposed mining activities”. Further, Bokamoso claimed that they had specifically requested the EAP to supply copies of the “alleged” prospecting rights, but had only received details of “one prospecting right, which apparently lapsed”.

In their response to Bokamoso, as seen by Daily Maverick, the EAP stated that they had provided “all the information” requested. They further noted that “the DMRE would not accept a mining right without the prospecting rights being up to date”.

Which was curious, because Bokamoso, at the time that this article was published, was investigating the possibility of a conflict between the prospecting rights and the mining rights, working on the assumption that a highly irregular dual process was under way.

***

On the Tiara Mining website, which presents the rights application as a fait accompli, we learn that the source of the mineral riches in the region between Gravelotte and Phalaborwa is the Murchison Greenstone Belt, a zone of three-billion-year-old rock sequences that is estimated to contain more than 82 million carats of emeralds. We also learn that the geological formation contains gold, molybdenum, nickel and antimony.

“Although none of these minerals have been quantified,” states Tiara Mining, with respect to the latter, “indications are that it would be viable to further explore.”

Unfortunately for Tiara Mining, much of the gold in these hills appears to have already been taken. As Selati Game Reserve notes on its own website, the ancient range was “the scene of a nearby minor gold rush in 1865”.


Rhino and calf at Mahoed Clearing in Selati Game Reserve. (Photo: Supplied)

Which suggests, if Tiara Mining is to get to the remaining gold, that ecologically destructive measures may be required. As for the emeralds, the mineral that is known to occur in the Murchison Range in great abundance, the chosen method of extraction could hardly be more destructive.

On page 32 of the EIA, we are told that the Tiara Granville Emerald and Quartz Mine will use the “truck and shovel opencast mining method” with a “crushing and screening unit” as well as a processing plant.

“Mine workings will reach a considerable depth of about 70 metres,” we are further informed, which will necessitate “clearance of the vegetation” and “stripping of topsoil”.

Then the EIA gets real.

Drilling and blasting “may occasionally be required,” it notes. The “removed Run of Mine (RoM) will be stockpiled using excavators”. Thereafter, RoM will be “transported to the washing plant by means of haul trucks with a loading capacity of approximately 40 tons”.

How will all of this affect the fragile ecosystem that the owners of Selati Game Reserve have been protecting since 1993?

The answer to the question can be found on page 321 of the EIA:

“All bushveld areas and watercourses still intact can be considered highly sensitive areas [which] serve as a breeding and foraging habitat for a number of faunal species. These areas can be regarded as ecologically irreplaceable and cover the majority of the area. It will be nearly impossible to imitate these areas after mining has been completed with a rehabilitation programme.”


Elephants in Selati Game Reserve. (Photo: Supplied)

Nonetheless, the EIA proposes that the strip-mining operation should go ahead. When Daily Maverick attempted to resolve the contradiction by putting the question to the relevant parties at Sakal and Tebo (Pty) Ltd, we received no response. The company also declined to explain the alleged irregularities regarding the prospecting rights, the scoping report and the fact that none of the owners of Selati Game Reserve had ever been contacted. Neither did Robert Michael Scholtz, the director of Tiara Mining whose name appears at the top of both reports, respond to our questions.

As for the DMRE, Daily Maverick attempted to gain some clarity on the matter from the department’s regional manager for Limpopo province, Azwihangwisi Mulaudzi. Was it true, we wanted to know, that the department had accepted the mining right application?

Again, no response.

This general unwillingness to engage, it appeared, was in line with the contents of the internal correspondence between Bokamoso and the EAP, with the latter stalling for time and refusing to provide the full list of documents requested. It was also apparently in line with the public meeting hosted by the EAP in Gravelotte on 20 March, where, according to Du Toit, the company’s representatives refused to answer why they had not acknowledged the game reserve at all.

The standout fact, which the EIA had expressly noted, was that the “majority” of the land covered by the mining application had been classified by the South African National Biodiversity Institute as a “critical biodiversity area”. What the EIA did not note, however, was that the Limpopo provincial government, in its 2013 conservation plan, had listed the entirety of Selati Game Reserve as “CBA 1” — meaning, the reserve had been categorised as ecologically “irreplaceable,” with any development “required to meet biodiversity pattern and/or ecological process targets.”

By all accounts, Sakal and Tebo (Pty) Ltd had failed to address this official requirement, which struck Daily Maverick as the ultimate inconsistency.

Still, as far as Du Toit and the owners of the game reserve knew, the DMRE had accepted the mining right application. The upcoming battle would therefore involve a long and arduous investigation into the validity of the prospecting rights, the scoping report and the water usage licence. At stake was one of the most ecologically sensitive and biodiverse corners of Limpopo province.

How would it all pan out? For the answers to that question, watch this space. DM/OBP

Crazy!

Namibian villagers fight against oil giant

https://youtu.be/CsdhisaClu8

Villagers in Namibia say big businesses searching for oil is damaging their way of life and their ancestral homes.

The story: https://www.africawild-forum.com/viewto ... 48#p536348

Mordor at the gates (Part Two): The men behind the ploy to strip-mine Selati Game Reserve

By Kevin Bloom• 16 May 2021


llustrative image | Sources: Adobe Stock | Waldo Swiegers / Chris Ratcliffe / Bloomberg / Getty Images | Unsplash / Dominik Vanyi

In early April, Daily Maverick published a report that left many conservationists appalled – one of South Africa’s most successful private game reserves, set in a part of the country with irreplaceable fauna and flora, was under attack by a company called Tiara Mining. Although there were major issues with the mining rights application, we noted, it seemed that the project had legs. Now, thanks to anonymous reader feedback, we can reveal the backgrounds of the two primary individuals involved.

Like many of the judgments from that time, the decision handed down by Judge Hoexter on 24 May 1985 had all the hallmarks of a sterling episode from a kickass crime detective series.

The opening scene, as recorded in the judgment, was a winter’s day exactly three years prior, when four men met at a picnic spot by the banks of the Vaal River. One of the men was Robert Michael Scholtz, a seller of semi-precious stones from Johannesburg. His partner was Trevor Michael Hart-Jones, the owner of a Zimbabwean gem export company.

The action shot happened when “Mr Jacobs” and “Mr Zulu,” the other two men, handed over to Scholtz and Hart-Jones a bag of 11 rough diamonds, for which they received R28,000 in cash.

Of course, as these scripts go, Jacobs and Zulu weren’t who they pretended to be – they were detective-sergeants in the SA Police, attached to the diamond and gold branch.

From afar, observing the deal, were other members of the branch, including a certain Captain Du Preez. Just as Scholtz and Hart-Jones were driving away, Du Preez spoke into his radio. A police car suddenly appeared on the scene.

Du Preez revealed the real identities of Jacobs and Zulu, and Scholtz and Hart-Jones were “removed” to the Vereeniging police station in separate vehicles.

“The exchange of diamonds and cash briefly described above was the culmination of a process of negotiation extending over a period of nearly three months,” wrote Justice Hoexter in his judgment, before proceeding for the next dozen or so pages to describe how the SAP’s diamond and gold branch had nabbed Scholtz and Hart-Jones – there had been meetings at the then Jan Smuts Airport, mention of “friends in South West Africa” who could get a large parcel of diamonds worth R100,000, and further meetings at the Milpark Holiday Inn in Johannesburg.

Ultimately, given that “the two accused” had done a deal for the uncut diamonds at a third of the market price – and, more importantly, given that the Supreme Court of Appeal wasn’t buying Scholtz’s story that he had intended to “out” Jacobs and Zulu for illicit diamond trading themselves – the conviction stood.

Three years later, in February 1988, the company that would one day become Tiara Mining was registered.

In the first part of this series, published in early April 2021 ( here: https://www.africawild-forum.com/viewto ... 65#p537165), Daily Maverick revealed that Tiara Mining, under the directorship of the same Robert Michael Scholtz, had plans to excavate a series of open-cast pits on the 28,000 hectare Selati Game Reserve in Limpopo. The mining application was at an advanced stage, we wrote, which was strange – no one from Tiara Mining had ever set foot on the conservancy.

We further pointed out that there were major inconsistencies in the scoping report and environmental impact assessment, with “an inaccurate description of proposed mining activities” in the former, and the latter proposing that the mining operation should go ahead despite the havoc that the drilling, blasting and excavation would wreak.

The standout fact, which the EIA had expressly noted, was that the “majority” of the land covered by the mining application had been classified by the South African National Biodiversity Institute as a “critical biodiversity area”.

The upshot of our first article was a raft of responses from readers, including information from a source in Plettenberg Bay, where – according to the CIPC – Tiara Mining had been headquartered since 2004.

As it turned out, Scholtz had been active in the local politics of the small seaside town, as a member of the ANC. On 20 December 2011, he stepped down as chairman of the Plett Business Chamber, citing in his resignation letter the “personal vendetta” against him by “certain sections of the community for whatever reason”.

He had also stated the following in the letter: “The final crunch came with the articles placed in a few weekend papers, which, I am sure, most of you have seen.”

The articles in question concerned the Fish Eagle Bay townhouse complex, which had been developed by Scholtz and a partner on the banks of the Keurbooms River. In the Weekend Argus version of the story, the local municipality had alleged that Scholtz owed almost R2-million in arrears for services dating back to 2009.

“This article was uncalled for,” Scholtz had added in his resignation letter, “an embarrassment to the true facts, but obviously just prior to Christmas, it was felt it would make interesting reading to the general public.”

Unfortunately, as with our first piece, Scholtz did not respond to our request for comment on the above. And while this time we did receive a response from the environmental assessment practitioner that he had commissioned to compile the scoping report and EIA (see below), none of our questions was directly answered.

Trading as Sakal and Tebo (Pty) Ltd, there were a number of issues that had been drawn to our attention regarding this environmental assessment practitioner (EAP), not least of which was the fact that the company’s sole director – identified by the CIPC as Melvyn Mandla Masango – wasn’t registered with the Environmental Assessment Practitioners’ Association of South Africa (Eapasa), as required by law.

In a call to Eapasa, a spokesperson confirmed for Daily Maverick that the list of members on its website was current, but that there was no Masango to be found.

Although the spokesperson further pointed out, as per the Government Gazette notice of August 2020, that the deadline for registrations had been shifted from February 2020 to February 2022, she said it was “problematic” that an unregistered EAP was compiling EIAs.

“We would suggest the public works with people who are registered,” she said.

But even if Masango had been registered, it was likely that he would have run up against Eapasa’s code of conduct, specifically the fourth item, which states that members must “not conduct professional activities in a manner involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, misrepresentation or bias”.

The thing was, in the government’s all-important application form for environmental authorisations, signed by both Scholtz and Masango on 10 July 2020, the latter had identified himself as a member of the Water Institute of Southern Africa (Wisa) and the Geological Society of South Africa (GSSA).

On the Wisa front, an email from a representative of the organisation stated that Masango’s membership had lapsed in 2017 and “was never renewed”. As for the GSSA, Daily Maverick was informed by the society, after repeated requests, that Masango was not an affiliate.

Then there was the second item in Eapasa’s code of conduct, which states that its members must “at all times place the integrity of the environment, including conservation and long-term sustainable use of the biophysical environment… above any commitment to sectional or private interests”.

Was it a breach of the code that Masango, as per the CIPC, also held active directorships in a pair of mines? Here, the Eapasa spokesperson skirted around the issue, suggesting that since Masango wasn’t yet signed up, the question was moot.

Still, it wasn’t moot that Scholtz had every intention of getting at the 82-million carats of emeralds in the Murchison Greenstone Belt, the ancient rock formation that looms over the northern section of Selati Game Reserve. Neither was it moot that to do this, he would need to employ some of the most destructive mining methods on earth.

Which brings us back to Masango’s non-response to Daily Maverick’s questions.

“We have realised that no matter how we can provide you any tangible reports… you will keep on publishing wrong information as you have done before,” he stated.

“Please provide us with comments related to the mining right application… Any other irrelevant request or request for clarity on matters outside the scope of the mining right application will not [be] entertained.”

What Masango was conveniently forgetting, it appeared, was the fact that all of the questions we had put to him for the first article concerned the mining right application.

Where were the copies of the full and final prospecting rights? Why was Selati Game Reserve mentioned only four times in the EIA and not once in the scoping report? How could you acknowledge in the EIA that strip-mining would destroy the local ecosystem, without any chance of rehabilitation, yet recommend that mining activities proceed anyway?

Again, Masango had answered none of these questions. Neither would he answer, for this current article, why he had misrepresented his memberships and affiliations. The only reason he had responded to Daily Maverick at all, it seemed, was because of the third question we had put to Scholtz – was Tiara Mining’s owner aware, we asked, that Masango wasn’t a member of Wisa or the GSSA?

Early on the morning of 4 May 2021, Scholtz had forwarded to Masango the questions we had put to him, stating simply “FYI”. In Masango’s response to Daily Maverick cited above, Scholtz was cc’d.

These, then, were the actions of the men behind the ploy to strip-mine Selati Game Reserve.

“There’s no question that Selati Game Reserve is hugely important from a biodiversity perspective,” said Dr Morne du Plessis, CEO of WWF South Africa, during a short telephone interview in early May.

“We have a partnership with them as part of the Black Rhino Range Expansion Project. Despite the suspected skulduggery, it would be a very short-sighted move if the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy allowed it to go ahead.”

So, would the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy ultimately greenlight the Tiara Mining project? If so, there would be more than a few irregularities that the department would have to overlook. DM

Bob Scholes’ last warning on the Kavango Basin: ‘The wildcatters are coming’

By Elana Azrai• 19 May 2021


Max Thokobotshabelo, right, works in the northern part of the Okavango Delta. The Okavango Jakotsha Community Trust, a community-based organisation, represents the interests of these communities and helps share out the wealth generated by tourism. The Delta brings in most of the $500m that Botswana makes in sustainable tourism every year. (Photo: Jeffrey Barbee / alianceearth.org)

In his final interview before he died on 28 April 2021, while on an 11-day hike from Epupa Falls to Camp Syncro on the Cunene River in northern Namibia, internationally acclaimed South African climate scientist Prof Bob Scholes left dire warnings for Namibia and Botswana on ReconAfrica’s oil and gas explorations.

Elana Azrai is a freelance writer and climate and ecological activist. This is extracted from an interview conducted by Nicolás Eliades of The Clima on 6 April 2021, with permission to use the footage.

• “The ‘wildcatters’ are coming — oil exploration ‘techies’ — hundreds of them will arrive and I don’t know how to put this politely, but these are not saints, they are going to be setting themselves up… and then they go away.” — Bob Scholes

Reconnaissance Energy Africa (ReconAfrica) recently announced it has “spudded” its second of a three-well programme in the Kavango Basin in the Kalahari Desert of Namibia. The process of beginning to drill a well in the oil and gas industry is referred to as “spudding in”. ReconAfrica is a Canadian-based company working collaboratively with the Namibian and Botswanan governments to explore oil and gas potential in the Kavango Basin of northeast Namibia and northwest Botswana.

In the interview with Nicolás Eliades of The Clima on 6 April 2021, Prof Bob Scholes said “the bigger problem, and this is true around the world, when the word gets out that there is a gas field development, people flood in from everywhere and in modern development we are only talking about (creating) a couple of a hundred of jobs. The highly skilled jobs will be occupied by expats… but people don’t know that, shanty towns develop and when it goes away the bubble bursts and the community have no resources left to support them.”

The ghost towns of Namibia come to mind, scattered ruins on the Skeleton Coast reclaimed by the desert, now nothing more than a memory of diamond bubbles that burst.

“My concerns are really the Bushman land (in Namibia), and in Botswana, and in relation to traditional cultures in those areas, because those are, in fact, some of the last remaining areas where particularly San people are able to continue with a traditional way of life that is unlikely to survive a major exploration,” Scholes said.

These bubbles are “particularly bad for hydrocarbon plays” and “gas is a real boom-and-bust thing, and for fracking, this is especially true because each hole only lasts about five years… No one in the world has really dealt with these post-gas exploration landscapes you are left with — and all of their social problems, people in the wrong places, expectations dashed, (infrastructure) which suddenly disappears,” Scholes said.

ReconAfrica’s literature previously discussed conventional and “unconventional” drilling opportunities, the latter term often used to refer to fracking — but these references have been removed since the Namibian government declared that no applicable and relevant licences have been issued. If gas is discovered, it remains to be seen if these agreements will hold in both regions.

In the interview with Eliades, Scholes said that he felt the hype surrounding ReconAfrica’s promises concerning one of the biggest hydrocarbon finds of the 21st century still exist primarily on paper. He said that the initial data ReconAfrica used to support the existence of these structures was based on the same “White Hill formations” in South Africa 10 years ago which “turned out to be a dud”. Scholes cautioned, “there may be an unexploited fossil fuel reserve, but it’s worth keeping a scrutiny on this and keeping everyone honest around this.”

On 15 April 2021, ReconAfrica announced the discovery of a working conventional petroleum system in the Kavango basin. ReconAfrica’s Dan Jarvie reported that the “sample log shows over 200m of oil and natural gas indicators” and that “based on these initial results, the components and processes for a working petroleum system are all present”.

Namibian President Hage Geingob has said the country was an “attractive destination for oil and gas investors”. Botswana’s Minister for Mineral Resources, Lefoko Maxwell Moagi, has stated that “the terms and conditions of the exploration licence requires ReconBotswana to conduct its operations in accordance with good industry practice, in such manner as to preserve ‘in as far as is possible’ the natural environment, minimise and control waste or undue loss of or damage to natural and biological resources, to prevent and where unavoidable, promptly treat pollution and contamination of the environment.”

Scholes emphasised that any extractions were not going to “deliver power to the people of Botswana and Namibia”. Rather, any reserves would be for export at international prices. “It’s not like you suddenly find some gas in your backyard and everyone gets a free ride, you know that hasn’t worked.”

Africa’s rich natural resources are estimated to account for 30% of the world’s mineral reserves, but Africa’s people benefit little from these riches as governments capture only a small share of the final value of the vast mineral exports from the continent, according to the International Alliance on Natural Resources in Africa (IANR). There is no reason to believe oil or gas extractions should be any different.

Case studies based on research by IANR from mining operations in four countries — Kenya, Angola, Zimbabwe, and Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) — “highlight ongoing problems and adverse human rights impacts from industrial mining on communities living in these areas. Some problems arise from inadequate legislation, while others are due to poor implementation of existing legislation. In many cases, governments do not adequately — if at all — promote the rights of their people, but rather allow companies to profit at their expense.”

The alliance says “many communities in mining areas — usually farmers who are already poor — are left worse off as a result of mining operations, often conducted by multinational corporations. Their (communal) rights, as guaranteed in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), are often violated, such as the right to dignity, the right to health, the ‘unquestionable and unalienable’ right to self-determination, and the right of ‘all peoples’ to freely dispose of their wealth and natural resources. Entire villages across Africa have been forcibly removed from their ancestral land, in many cases with no replacement. Members of communities on mineral-rich land, including traditional leaders, women, children, and the elderly, have been arrested and imprisoned for protecting the only land they have, which is often their only source of livelihood, and for exercising their right to protest. Rivers, land, and crops have been contaminated from mining processes and communities have lost access to water sources.”

Namibia, Botswana and Zambia are countries that are already predicted to warm at more than twice the global average due to climate change. A hotter and drier climate “could destroy the way of life of the people who live here”, according to IPCC author and climate scientist Francois Engelbrecht.

Scholes reinforced these concerns in his interview, stating “whether families in Namibia or Botswana get electrical lighting etc is not determined by whether this project is successful or not… I would say the option of supplying them with life-enhancing power using solar and renewable resources is a much better option than this long shot of hydrocarbon development.

“You’re going to hear all kinds of big promises from the likes of ReconAfrica who are trying to sell something of course… Post-development rehabilitation is more than planting a couple of trees and watering some grass, it’s how do you put an entire society on to a sustainable development pathway and that’s the real challenge. That’s what the locals need to be aware of, as all sorts of promises are going to be dangled in front of their eyes.

“Botswana’s development I think is a model for all of Africa really, in terms of how it did a steady and very grassroots developmental model with an emphasis on education at the primary level, and basic water supplies at village level, clinics etc. Not these big shiny lights that you will be suddenly transported into the 21st century and you are going to have wealthy lives tomorrow which has been a terrible failure as it never delivers.

“So, it would be a travesty for Botswana, in particular, to get lured away from its proven and very successful developmental pathway into a shiny objects and false promises developmental pathway.”

• A-rated and deeply respected scientist Professor Bob Scholes died on 28 April 2021 while hiking in northern Namibia. His life’s work is a testimony of his love for his continent. DM

AFRIFORUM: MINING ISSUE AT KRUGER NATIONAL PARK IN PROGRESS AGAIN
BY AFRIFORUM | MAY 16, 2021
https://afriforum.co.za/en/afriforum-mi ... VLy4-0zs1I



On Thursday 13 May 2021, almost two years after the first meeting and first application in this regard, the civil rights organisation AfriForum and Saai participated in a public participation meeting in Marloth Park in the run-up to a proposed coal mine on the doorstep of the Kruger National Park.

The meeting and process that was put forward in 2019 was already lacking and so too the latest public participation process. The environmental consultant Limpearth & Environmental (Pty) Ltd that led the public participation meeting on behalf of Tenbosch Mining (Pty) Ltd was not able to make the relevant information available to the public and was unorganised in general.

In April 2021 AfriForum was forced to instruct their legal team to direct a letter to Limpearth & Environmental (Pty) Ltd wherein it was requested that the necessary documents for comment be sent to the interested persons, as the necessary information was not sent to AfriForum when this organisation registered as an interested and affected party – no feedback has been received yet. During the public participation meeting of 13 May members of the community asked various questions but none of the questions were really answered.

Lambert de Klerk, Head of Environmental Affairs at AfriForum, says Manzolwandle Investments (Pty) Ltd, that originally submitted the application for the coal mine in 2019, has in the meantime been bought by Tenbosch Mining (Pty) Ltd. During the public participation meeting on 13 May this information was also conveyed to the community by Limpearth & Environmental (Pty) Ltd.

Since the application for the coal mine was rejected, Manzolwandle Investments (Pty) Ltd appealed against the decision – the appeal was granted. “We question the decision to grant Manzolwandle Investments’ appeal seeing that the correct public participation process was not followed and some of the documents they used for their environmental impact study was investigated for plagiarism which is a form of fraud,” De Klerk added.

AfriForum has already met with its legal team and is in the process of taking further steps.

You can help us by supporting our #BewaarOnsNatuur campaign. SMS “KNP” to 32077 (R1).

Afriforum!

These public participation meetings are just rubber stamp exercises.

What a mess I thought that this mining project was gone and done with