Africa Wild

Battle is on to save KZN’s 100-year-old Ndumo Game Reserve from coal and oil shale drilling


Sunset lights up the sky at the Ndumo Game Reserve (Photo: Cathariné Hanekom)

By Tony Carnie - 30 Sep 2024

‘Happy birthday’ is on hold as the reserve faces off a mining application, despite existing legal protections against prospecting and doubt that anything of value will be found.
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Conservation managers in one of South Africa’s oldest game reserves are preparing to fight off a coal and oil shale prospecting venture inside the reserve, just as they celebrate its 100th anniversary.

Located on KwaZulu-Natal’s northern border with Mozambique and Eswatini, the remote Ndumo Game Reserve was proclaimed a nationally protected nature reserve in 1924.

The 10,000ha wildlife haven was established mainly to conserve the abundant animal, fish and waterbird populations in one of the country’s largest river floodplain systems, at the confluence of the Usuthu and Phongolo rivers.

Home to 430 avian species – the highest bird count in the country – Ndumo’s global conservation value was underlined by its official recognition as a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance.

Now, a little-known company named Chikopokopo Zibaa Construction and Projects has applied for prospecting rights over 19,800ha that includes the western portion of the Ndumo reserve and other sensitive habitats nearby.

Chikopokopo plans to drill at least 12 exploration boreholes (each to a depth of about 1,000m) while searching for “agate, coal, perlite, pseudocoal and Torbanite/oil Shale”, according to its environmental impact assessment (EIA) application.

Read more: Ndumo Game Reserve: The complicated balancing act of subsistence farming and nature conservation in KwaZulu-Natal

The company is headed by Mpumalanga-based entrepreneur Kleinbooi Lucky Mtsweni, who is listed as a director or former director of at least 12 companies, including the Million Dollar Foundation, Ingakara Mining, Fourplus Mining and Shakinar Construction.

Searches of the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission database show that most of the companies were deregistered over the past two years.


The reserve’s hippo population has dropped by nearly 70% over the past 40 years. (Photo: Rick Matthews / Big Banana Films)

Chikopokopo was registered in 2014, with Mtsweni’s current co-directors listed as Siyanda Zindela and Mphumeleli Biyela.

Recent posts on Mtsweni’s LinkedIn profile suggest that he also has interests in running trucks to Eskom’s coal-fired power stations. Should his latest coal exploration venture succeed, Ndumo is just 260km by road from the lucrative coal export harbour of Richards Bay, where long queues of coal trucks continue to clog up the N2 freeway.


A mobile drilling rig (Photo: Basia environmental report)

However, the provincial nature conservation agency, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, argues that the prospecting application is fatally flawed (at least as far as Ndumo is concerned) because the National Environmental Management: Protected Areas Act expressly prohibits prospecting and mining within the boundaries of a nature reserve.

Ezemvelo has criticised the EIA application by the Pretoria-based Basia Environmental Consultants group for its “grossly incomplete” public consultation process.

The conservation agency notes that, apart from recognising Ezemvelo’s direct mandate to protect Ndumo from harmful activities, Basia should also have consulted the Ramsar Convention Secretariat, the National Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment and other groups or organisations engaged with the local community or transfrontier conservation projects with neighbouring Mozambique and Eswatini.


Map of the Ndumo reserve. (Image: Sheena Carnie)

In addition to the new coal/oil shale exploration threat, a large part of Ndumo’s eastern section has also been damaged over the past decade by illegal subsistence farming plots along the Phongolo River floodplain.

Ndumo once contained the third-largest hippo population in South Africa, but studies show that their numbers have dropped by nearly 70% over the past 40 years. It also supports a large Nile crocodile population and pre­viously had a dense population of rhinos. The last rhinos were removed in 2017 because of the high poaching risk.

From a community perspective, the Phongolo River system supports one of the most important traditional fisheries in southern Africa and hosts the richest fish fauna of any river system in the country (48 species, five of which are SA Red Data species).

Ndumo is the only section of the floodplain that has legal protection and it provides sanctuary to fish that later migrate to restock depleted pans outside the reserve.


A line of pelicans soars above the lakes and pans of the Ndumo Game Reserve. (Photo: Rick Matthews / Big Banana Films)

Giant sycamore fig trees tower above the landscape at Shokwe Pan in Ndumo. (Photo: Rick Matthews / Big Banana Films)

‘Costs exceed benefits’

Ezemvelo says it has engaged with a professional geologist, who believes that the mineral commodities sought by Chikopo­kopo are unlikely to be found in the targeted area “and, if they do, will be of low value or uneconomic to mine”.

The environmental costs of mining low-value commodities in this internationally protected reserve would therefore far exceed the benefits.

Dr Digby Gold, an independent consulting geologist from Durban, said he very much doubted that oil shale would be found at relatively low depths.

Read more: Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Game Reserve threatened by ‘get-rich-quick’ coal prospecting rights

Read more: Mining with royal approval causes devastating damage to fragile Eswatini nature reserve

Chikopokopo would need to drill down to nearly 5,000m to find oil shale/gas beneath the Lebombo Mountains, he said, noting that this mountain range has a much thicker layer of basalt than the Drakensberg.

In his 148-page basic assessment report, Basia environmental consultant Tshia Malehase suggests that there would be no exploration drilling within 100m of any “sensitive areas” and that relevant stakeholders had been asked to state potential concerns they had about the project.

All these comments and responses had been collated in a register attached to the study, he says.


Flamingoes spread their wings on take-off from Nyamithi Pan in Ndumo. (Photo: Rick Matthews / Big Banana Films)


Pelicans in the lakes and pans of the Ndumo Game Reserve. (Photo: Rick Matthews / Big Banana Films)

However, when Daily Maverick requested a copy of this register, Malehase did not provide it, saying the consultation began in August 2023 and had “lapsed” a year ago.

“The site notices and newspaper advert were placed and also BID and supporting documents were provided to Ndumo Nature Reserve, however, there were no comments received from them nor the public. The chief of the area was also consulted.”

In an email, we asked Malehase and Mtsweni to comment on why Chikopokopo had included the western section of Ndumo Game Reserve when such areas are legally excluded from mining in terms of national laws.

Malehase said that, although part of Ndumo was included, “this is earmarked as a No Go area with a proposed Buffer Zone of 100m from sensitive environments… There is no prospecting work that will be done on Ndumo Game Reserve.”

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

Read more: Gwede MIA again while ecologically important Rietvlei and surrounding communities at risk

Read more: Makgabeng – sacred but imperilled with Platinum mining set to destroy it

Despite this assurance, however, the inclusion of land inside the game reserve and the depth of the proposed exploration wells have raised several questions about the company’s intentions.

Ezemvelo insists that the application boundaries must be amended to exclude Ndumo completely. The agency also notes that large parts of the remaining exploration area form part of the proposed Usuthu Gorge Community Conservation Area and the Lubombo Ndumu-Tembe-Futi Transfrontier Conservation Area.


Mpumalanga entrepreneur Kleinbooi Lucky Mtsweni heads Chikopokopo Zibaa Construction and Projects. (Photo: LinkedIn profile)

In 2015, the agency also passed a resolution calling for a 5km-wide buffer zone or “no-go mining zone” around its major parks to safeguard them from incompatible land uses such as mining and industrial development.

“It is strongly recommended that Basia advise your client, Chikopokopo Zibaa Construction and Projects (Pty) Ltd, not to proceed further in the application area under consideration and to seek a less environmentally sensitive area.

“In our view, it is unfair to allow the applicant to proceed with paying for additional studies for the prospecting application when mining in this location is likely to be fatally flawed,” Ezemvelo concluded. DM

Scary It certainly cannot be approved.

With the growth of renewable energy, it is strange that some people still hope to get rich from coal mining; what's more, considering the protests which will certainly delay the procedure. There must be someone behind the scenes, who is hoping/sure that he can pull the strings

Coal hunters encircle Africa’s first wilderness and rhino sanctuary


Ezemvelo rangers patrol a remote section of the Hlulhuwe-iMfolozi Game Reserve on horseback. (Photo: Project Rhino

By Tony Carnie | 09 Mar 2025

The mineral commodities market is tightening its noose around one of Africa’s oldest game reserves, with a renewed flurry of coal, gas and mineral prospecting applications on the park’s boundaries.
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The Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Game Reserve is now almost completely encircled by fossil fuel hunters eyeing the region’s rich mineral pickings, primarily coal.

Over the past few years, several relatively unknown mining companies have applied for prospecting rights close to the 130-year-old wildlife sanctuary in KwaZulu-Natal, but mainly outside the 5km wide “no-go mining zone’ declared by the park custodians, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife.

More recently, however, some prospectors have extended their ambitions right up to the park’s boundary fence. Now, with the exception of the northern and southern tips, the reserve has been ringed by wall-to-wall mining and prospecting claims although some of these have subsequently been withdrawn.


More than a dozen companies have lodged exploration or mining right applications in close proximity to the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Game Reserve, which was proclaimed in 1895. (Map: Siyanda Gelese)

This suggests that if viable mineral deposits are found and further mining rights are authorised via Gwede Mantashe’s Ministry of Mineral and Petroleum Resources, companies will be free to conduct daily dynamite blasting or strip-mining directly next to Ezemvelo’s flagship Big Five conservation area and tourism attraction.

The iMfolozi section of the reserve also incorporates South Africa’s first wilderness zone (a specially designated 30,000 hectare area where no vehicles, roads or permanent structures are allowed, in order to protect its primeval character). Tourists can enter only on foot during guided wilderness trails or while camping in tents or sleeping under the stars.

Outside the park, further coal discoveries are likely to trigger a series of impacts for rural communities, including potential expulsion from their traditional homesteads, loss of farming and grazing lands or daily exposure to clouds of coal dust, blasting noise and other effects from mining operations.

One of the main factors driving the latest exploration boom in this area appears to be its proximity to the nearby coal and bulk products export harbour at Richards Bay, where trucks laden with coal and other minerals have been lining up almost daily and creating regular traffic snarl-ups along the N2 freeway.

According to the International Energy Association’s latest assessment report, global coal consumption has rebounded since the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, especially in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that resulted in record global coal production and consumption.

Latest application


Makame Monnakgotla, chair of the Afri In Transit group. (Image: AIT website)


Afri In Transit CEO Denga Kwinda. (Image: AIT website)

The latest prospecting application, covering a 7,500 ha chunk of community land in the Somkhele area (right on the boundary of Hluhluwe-iMfolozi), has been lodged by the Johannesburg-based Afri In Transit (AIT) group.

This junior mining group, with a base in the Sinosteel Building in Rivonia Road, Sandown, seems to have adopted a blunderbuss approach, requesting permission to prospect and drill exploration wells for a wide variety of mineral resources – including torbanite, coal, pseudocoal, oil shale, lithium, limestone, iron ore, general heavy minerals, graphite and fluorspar.

Billing itself as a “pit-to-port” mining and logistics company, AIT is chaired by Makame Monnakgotla, who lists himself as a former Michaelhouse old boy and a process specialist at several mining houses. The company’s CEO, Denga Kwinda, is a former commercial analyst at Grindrod and proclaims that her mining company aims to “spot gaps and opportunities in the global energy mix” and to supply minerals to growing economies.

According to its website, AIT exports significant volumes of coal to Europe and India, along with chrome magnetite to China.

The company’s environmental consultant, Thevha Sustainable Solutions, recently circulated a background information document inviting interested and affected groups to register for a public consultation process. Once the consultant had drafted a basic environmental impact report, parties would have 30 days to comment on the report and raise concerns about AIT’s prospecting application.

Kwinda did not respond to Daily Maverick’s repeated requests for comment on why AIT is targeting such an environmentally sensitive area.

AIT is not the only company eyeing opportunities around the 96 000 ha wildlife reserve, with indications that more than a dozen mining or prospecting applications have been lodged in close proximity to the park.

Controversial projects


One of the many homesteads on the fence line of the Tendele open cast coal mine near Mtubutuba. Since Tendele began mining in this region in 2007, more than 200 families have been removed and relocated to make way for coal mining pits, with hundreds more families in line to be shifted if the latest mine expansion drive continues around Hluhluwe-iMfolozi. (Photo: Rob Symons)


Ringed by traditional homesteads, the Tendele mining group has established several mining pits in rural areas adjacent to the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Game Reserve since 2007. (Screenshot image: Airbus / Google Earth Pro )

Two other companies, Zululand Anthracite Colliery (established in 1985) and Tendele Coal Mining (established in 2007) already have several mining pits close to the park that have sparked controversy in the past owing to a variety of impacts such as acid mine water pollution of the Mfolozi River, the illegal establishment of mine pits, the relocation of homesteads and other complaints.

More recent expansion of Tendele coal mining operations in the Somkhele area has also triggered several court cases by rural communities opposed to coal mining on their doorsteps, and raised concerns of further violence or intimidation following the assassination of 63-year-old anti-mining activist MaFikile Ntshangase in October 2020. Tendele argues that it plays a vital role in creating jobs and providing coal to industry and also offered a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Ntshangase’s killers.

Now, faced with the prospect of a multitude of new coal mines on the doorstep of the Hlhhluwe-iMfolozi Park, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife has protested strongly against the new AIT bid and several of the most recent exploration ventures, especially those located in the park’s 5km-wide buffer zone.

Ezemvelo noted that its management board decided in 2015 that any mining or heavy industry proposals in this strip were incompatible land use activities next to protected areas “as the impacts of mining, such as water, noise and dust pollution, visual intrusion, and vibration, threaten the very purpose and value of protected areas”.

The board’s position statement advocates no new mining within 5km of Ezemvelo protected areas, though the legal status of this policy may be contested by mining houses.

In 2023, the eMalahleni (Witbank) company Jaments lodged two applications for coal prospecting rights around the park, both of which included large areas within the sensitive buffer zone.

However, Jaments director Bongane Simelane told Daily Maverick that the company subsequently decided to withdraw both applications in February 2024 after a public consultation process with local stakeholders that highlighted concerns about the proximity to the park.

Simelane said it was, therefore, “baseless and unwarranted” to suggest that Jaments had shown disregard for the potentially adverse social and environmental impacts of coal prospecting operations in this area.

“Jaments has and continues to respect the prescripts of mining and environmental legislation,” he said.

Tornowize, another eMalahleni company, also applied for prospecting and mining rights close to the southern boundary of the park in June 2023.

Withdrawal of application


Sonwabo Debedu of Tornowize. (Image: Tornowize website)

Tornowize director Sonwabo “Sonny” Debedu said his company had also decided to withdraw the applications in February 2024. In a letter to the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE), Tornowize consultants stated that: “During consultation with the chief and his council as the custodian of the land, access to conduct site assessment was denied as they are not in support of the application. It was also discovered during consultation and desktop studies that the proposed prospecting rights area is overlapping with the Tendele mine’s Mining Right area and this decreases the size and/ limit(s) the area available for Tornowize (Pty) Ltd to explore/prospect coal.”

More recently, in November 2024, Shoshanguve businessman Thomo Moses Mashishi (director of TMM Auto) lodged a prospecting application for a 38,000 ha area along the north central boundary of the park.

A basic environmental impact assessment process began last year, but the progress with this application remains unclear as neither Mashshi nor his environmental consultant Vanessa Nkosi-Manyika could be reached for comment.

More worryingly, from a conservation perspective, a prospecting licence has been granted in the Fuleni area, directly adjacent to one of the most sensitive areas of the park, the designated wilderness area.

This prospecting right was granted to Imvukuzane Resources, whose three directors are Vuslat Bayoglu, his brother Serhat Bayoglu and Jerome Ngwenya, former chair of the Ingonyama Trust.

Vuslat Bayoglu is also MD of the Menar group, which has controlling interests in Canyon Coal and Zululand Anthracite Colliery, and is a director of the Richards Bay Coal Terminal. Ngwenya is also a director of Menar.

Responding to queries from Daily Maverick, a Menar spokesperson said the Imvukuzane prospecting right at Fuleni was valid for five years, until August 2028.

“We have applied for the prospecting right to assess the presence of coal and determine whether it constitutes a viable reserve. We intend to comply with the conditions of the prospecting right as well as the accompanying environmental authorisations.”

Asked whether the group believed that coal mining was justifiable in such an environmentally sensitive area, Menar responded: “This question may be directed to the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources, as they have the prerogative to grant or refuse prospecting right applications in South Africa.”

In the Mpembeni area, at the northern tip of the park, the Nomaphenduka group has applied for prospecting rights for titanium, heavy minerals, as well as aluminium, manganese and iron ore, directly within the 5km Ezemvelo buffer

But Nomaphenduka director Khaya Khumalo asserts that his exploration claim near Mpembeni falls outside the Ezemvelo buffer zone.

“There are homesteads there, so it can’t be inside the ‘buffer zone’. Ezemvelo is giving us a headache for nothing by objecting to our application. We don’t want to mine coal, so there will be no pollution if we mine that area.

“What surprises me is that other people from Mpumalanga have also applied for the same area that I applied for several years ago, but they [government authorities] are saying that I can’t mine a small area of about 5ha . Yet there are three other companies also applying in that area … To me it’s very political,” the Mtubatuba-based entrepreneur said.

At this point, the prospecting companies are obliged to appoint an environmental consultant to conduct basic assessment reports on the exploration phase, including test drilling – but not the actual impacts of mining pits on the people or environment of the region.

Environmentally sensitive


A notice warning motorists to slow down while driving through the Corridor section of the park. (Photo: Tony Carnie)


Elephants cross a tourist road in the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Reserve. (Photo: Tony Carnie)

While the companies appear to be complying with the mandatory legal procedures required by the mining department, their pursuit of mineral riches in such an environmentally sensitive location is bound to raise concern, and strong opposition, in several quarters – especially if the current exploration phase proceeds to mining approval.

Kirsten Youens, an attorney from the Durban-based All Rise law clinic, notes that such assessment reports during the prospecting phase do not consider the impacts of full-blown mining – or the cumulative impacts of a multiplicity of new coal mines.

All Rise, representing the Mine Affected Communities United in Action group and the Global Environmental Trust, also argues that coal mining forecloses other more sustainable land use options and subsistence-based livelihoods.

“Notwithstanding its smaller impact, prospecting cannot be assessed in a vacuum. Its whole purpose is to identify and evaluate coal deposits for future mining which, by its very nature, has significant adverse impacts,” Youens said.

“It is our experience that the decisions made by the government are too often blinkered by the promise of employment and other socioeconomic benefits, without weighing these benefits up against the significant adverse impacts and long-term costs borne by the affected communities.” DM

SOUTH SUDAN EXPLORATION

SA clams up on its hunt for oil in world’s largest animal migration corridor


A small fraction of the millions of tiang antelopes at the start of their yearly migration through the grasslands of South Sudan. (Photo: Marcus Westberg)

By Tony Carnie - 08 May 2025

The South African government petroleum agency has refused to provide details of its controversial oil and gas exploration project slap-bang in the middle of the world’s largest animal migration path.
Millions of antelope migrate through the wetlands and grasslands of South Sudan every year in a global wildlife spectacle that outshines the more famous wildebeest and zebra migration of East Africa.

Whereas the Serengeti-Mara migration in Tanzania and Kenya involves around 1.3 million wildebeest and several hundred thousand zebra and gazelles, the annual Great Nile migration in South Sudan boasts between five and seven million antelope species, including kob, tiang, gazelle and reedbuck.

It is the “largest known land mammal migration on Earth” according to the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), a United Nations conservation treaty to safeguard the world’s fast diminishing migratory species.


A wave of white-eared kob on the move during the Great Nile Migration in South Sudan. (Photo: David Simpson)

And yet it is here — in the very heartland of this spectacular animal migration route and Africa’s largest wetland (the Sudd) — that the South African National Petroleum Company (SANPC) is hoping to strike oil and to also support the development of new petroleum refineries and export pipelines at a potential cost of up to $1-billion (more than R18-billion).

Project maps depict a three-phase exploration process that could lead to production wells, pipelines, refineries and other infrastructure located within the Badingilo National Park and large areas of riverine and grassland habitat used by animals circuiting between the Boma, Shambe and Gambella national parks.

Last year, contractors were also invited to bid on redrilling an old oil exploration well in the Jonglei region. It was abandoned in 2007 after the drilling equipment got stuck 2,200m underground at Kedelai, in the environmentally-sensitive floodplain of the White Nile River.


Left map: South Africa’s Block B2 oil exploration block lies in the centre of the migration route for white-eared kob, tiang and other antelope species moving between the Badingilo, Boma and Gambella national parks. (Map: GIUM) Right map: Oil exploration has been split into three phases by the Strategic Fuel Fund. (Map: SFF)

The more recent exploration project is part of an agreement between the South Sudan government’s Nile Petroleum company and South Africa’s Strategic Fuel Fund (SFF) — now part of the newly established SANPC.

Various feasibility studies and exploration projects have been rumbling on behind the scenes since former energy minister Jeff Radebe announced in 2019 that South Africa and South Sudan had signed an exploration and production sharing agreement and were engaged in talks to set up a 60,000 barrel per day refinery to supply oil products to the local market in South Sudan, as well as to secure exports to Ethiopia and other neighbouring countries.

A government media release at the time stated that the SA Department of Energy had “pledged to invest $1-billion into South Sudan’s petroleum industry, with the aim of securing affordable energy supplies for South Africa”.

That announcement came shortly before High Court Judge Owen Rogers found that attorney and former acting SSF chief executive Sibusiso Gamede had been paid more than R2,6-million in bribes by companies in Dubai and elsewhere for his role in facilitating the sell-off of South Africa’s strategic stock of 10 million barrels of crude oil early in 2016.

Radebe attempted to backpedal swiftly on the potentially massive costs of the South Sudan venture after the Sunday Times published a news article in March 2019 under the headline: “Jeff Radebe’s dodgy $1bn oil deal”.

In response, Radebe issued a detailed statement in which he said: “The stated $1-billion is the estimated cost of the full project including the oil block, pipeline and refinery, which will be spread over a period of 10 years. A project of this magnitude passes through various phases of approval and execution.”


The White Nile River and the Sudd region form part of Africa’s largest wetland, nominated as a World Heritage Site. (Photo: Marcus Westberg)

Recalling the ANC’s historic relationship with the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army in fighting for their respective political liberations, Radebe said that the $1-billion was just “an indicative figure at this stage.

“As with similar projects of this nature, upon completing the feasibility study, the project has a potential to attract other strategic partners and/or investors, which may include South Sudanese and South African companies.”

Read Radebe’s full response to that article here.

Daily Maverick has requested details of the state entity’s total expenditure in the South Sudan exploration venture over the last six years, but SANPC spokesperson Jacky Mashapu did not provide any figures.

Daily Maverick also requested copies of any environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) reports on the exploration project, at least one of which was commissioned by the SFF, but Mashapu asserted that these reports were “confidential”.

And the SFF declined to provide any details of a recent agreement it signed with the British-based Wildcat Petroleum group (which published a statement though the London Stock Exchange on 20 March confirming that it had signed a collaboration agreement with the SFF to “evaluate” the South Sudan petroleum assets recently relinquished by the Malaysian multinational oil and gas company Petronas).


The logo of the Wildcat Petroleum group. (Source Wildcat Petroleum website)

In a brief statement in August 2024, Petronas attributed its decision to bail out of South Sudan to long-term investment strategies “amid the changing industry environment and accelerated energy transition”.

But Wildcat chairperson Mandhir Singh hailed the new deal with South Africa as “excellent news for Wildcat in its endeavours to secure a deal in South Sudan.

“A tie-up with the SFF can only enhance Wildcat opportunities as the SFF is one of only a handful of companies that has successfully signed a petroleum deal in South Sudan since the country gained independence. They have a well-established technical team in Juba which can assist Wildcat in any technical work it needs to conduct.”

However, Mashapu said the Wildcat deal was subject to a non-disclosure agreement and “as a result, we cannot disclosure [sic] anything for now.”

Regarding our request for a copy of the environmental and social impact report, Mashapu stated: “The report is confidential and as it is yet not published by the Ministry of Petroleum (MOP), South Sudan, on their website, hence the content cannot be provided for any publication and use.


Part of the massive herds of tiang antelopes in Badingilo National Park in South Sudan. (Photo: Marcus Westberg)

“The study and analysis of samples (for the first phase of the exploration project) is completed and results were presented and approved by our partner, Nilepet. The communication is being sent to MOP South Sudan to provide us a time slot suitable so the team can present and submit the report to MOP for public consultation and approval.”

(South Sudan’s petroleum minister, Puot Kang Chol, was arrested two months ago, while Vice-President Riek Machar was also placed under house arrest after being accused of plotting rebellion against long-time political rival President Salva Kiir.)


Political rivals Vice-President Riek Machar (left) and President Salva Kiir shake hands at a ceremony in 2019. (Photo: Stringer / EPA-EFE)

No details are available on who conducted the impact assessment study or how much it cost, though the South African taxpayer-funded SFF advertised the contract in October 2023, stating that tender documents could be downloaded from the National Treasury’s e-Tender publication portal.

The Secretariat of the Bonn-based Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) confirmed that it had been unable to obtain a copy of the environmental impact study, while the South Sudan Wildlife Service head, General Khamis Adieng Ding, did not respond to requests for comment.

“We are aware that the ESIA study was conducted in May-July 2024, but unfortunately we have not seen it because the report has not been made public,” said a spokesperson for the CMS Secretariat.

The CMS Secretariat has raised several concerns about the South African/South Sudan exploration project, which covers a massive 47,000km2 area known as Block B2, north of the capital, Juba.


The village of Kassinger in Badingilo National Park. (Photo: Marcus Westberg)

According to the CMS Secretariat, the Block B2 oil extraction plan “poses a pressing concern” because it covers living spaces critical for both the kob and tiang migrations.

“Without careful and informed planning, the oil exploration set to begin in 2025 could seriously disrupt wildlife migration, increase human encroachment, and escalate illegal hunting. The rising incidence of illegal tiang harvesting along roads already shows how essential it is to plan infrastructure with wildlife protection in mind.

“Approximately five million kob and 400,000 tiang, alongside other hooved mammals also known as ‘ungulates’, undertake complex, long-distance journeys to access essential wet and dry-season habitats annually,” said the CMS, citing newly released migration maps developed by the Global Initiative on Ungulate Migration.

Their routes take them between Badingilo and Boma National Parks in South Sudan. Some also migrate further north to Gambella National Park in Ethiopia, an important dry-season refuge, particularly for kob, from February to May.


White-eared kob race across a gully during the Great Nile Migration. (Photo: David Simpson)

In response to these concerns, the SANPC said: “We, as a responsible operator, will take due care for any interference in migration of fauna and flora regarding its magnitude, timing, and preventative measures which are required to be taken to make minimum impact on their movement. The issue was well dealt [with] in the ESIA report, and mitigation plans are being proposed, which will be adhered to while operating in the area.”

According to a Unesco World Heritage Site nomination fact sheet, the Sudd has a very high carrying capacity for wild herbivores that depends on unconstrained foraging movement across an intact and functioning landscape.

As a result, the Sudd and adjoining wetlands and grasslands are still able to support two of the largest ungulate migrations in the world, covering an area seven times larger than Serengeti National Park.

But if South Africa strikes oil, that picture is almost certain to change. DM

Read SANPC’s full response to our queries here.