Miners are ripping up the West Coast

[Lisbeth]

By Miles Masterson• 9 January 2021


Overview of activities on Beach 10 of the Tormin mine extension run by Mineral Sands Resources ( MSR). (Photo: Supplied)

Long stretches of pristine coastline are being affected by mining enterprises. So surfer Mike Schlebach and others have formed an organisation to protect the area’s beaches, dunes and biodiversity.

South African big-wave surfer Mike Schlebach recently formed a non-profit company to challenge the increasing number of prospecting and mining activities on the Cape West Coast, which has led to ecological degradation and restrictions to coastal access. These mining companies seem to be operating with little regard for fragile coastal ecosystems and the concerns of local and recreational users.

This has been playing out on South Africa’s West Coast – the arid, hauntingly beautiful stretch of otherwise largely untouched public and private farmland abutting the sparkling Atlantic Ocean stretching up to the Orange River – for decades. These mines litter large stretches of the coast, from north of the Olifants River to Alexander Bay on the Namibian border.

In several instances, existing sites have not been rehabilitated as required by South Africa’s Environmental Impact Assessment procedures. Several new prospecting and mining applications have also been submitted for the coastal and offshore area between Elands Bay and the Olifants estuary. Incredibly fragile ecosystems are being carved up for diamond mining, oil and gas exploration and valuable heavy mineral deposits, often with damaging results.

Thanks to the sheer remoteness of this sparsely populated region, the activities of these mining companies have largely escaped public scrutiny. The situation has become so concerning it prompted Schlebach and several other surfers and eco-activists to found a non-profit company, Protect The West Coast (PTWC), in November 2020. Schlebach, a highly respected big wave surfer and regular visitor to the region to surf remote big wave spots, was prevented from accessing what he knew to be an open beach by private security contractors at the De Punt mine, near the Olifants River mouth.

“I was told I needed a permit but pushed back and got ‘permission’ to camp overnight on public land,” explained Schlebach. “The next day, I took a drive north to find the Tormin mine and saw new roads, trucks and excavators, all hard at work digging up this pristine piece of coastline.

“They have been given permission to mine for heavy minerals on 10 beaches north of the existing Tormin mine. Beach mining is allowed between the low-water mark and the dunes although a 10m buffer area from the toe of the dune to the start of mining is required. This means the beaches and any marine life that lives in or on them will likely be destroyed. Any recreational access is now also in jeopardy of being highly restricted.”

The impact of mining on these fragile ecosystems is concerning.

“What we are witnessing on the ground is the degradation of coastal and marine ecosystems without proper regard for vulnerable dune systems, critical biodiversity areas and government’s objective of enhancing access to the coast,” said Merle Sowman, associate professor and head of the department of environmental and geographical sciences at the University of Cape Town and a PTWC advisory board member.

“There have been several objections and appeals against the increase in prospecting and mining applications along the West and Northern Cape coasts, but these have been mostly ignored by the minister of environmental affairs, Barbara Creecy,” Sowman added.

“The South African government is greenlighting companies to mine on vast areas along the West Coast with very little pushback and consideration for anything other than some short-term jobs and some cash in the bank,” said Schlebach. “What is alarming is that the environment minister is supporting these mining activities and did not stand up and protect our coast as required of the minister charged with protecting our coastal resources and heritage.”

Environmental effects of mining in this environmentally fragile region include the damage or destruction of coastal dune systems and sea cliffs and impacts on biodiversity. Mining on beaches and in the nearshore zone can result in imbalances in sediments, cliff collapses and the deposition of terrestrial material into the water column, which can affect filter feeders and other pelagic species, undermining the fishing industry. Large numbers of trucks on gravel roads generate air pollution. The impact on groundwater resources affects local farmers.


West Coast magnificence just north of the Namakwa Sands mine. (Photo: Sacha Specker)

As Schlebach discovered, the potential curbing of the right of access to these areas inhibits recreational and tourism-related activities, such as surfing, hiking, trail running, mountain biking, rock angling and diving. The loss of archaeological and cultural sites and fossils was even more important, added Schlebach.

“The Khoisan have been roaming the coast for centuries,” he said. “These mines destroy middens and other areas of significance that desperately need to be protected.”

Though all the mining activities along the West Coast concern PTWC, it is focusing on four current or proposed mining operations in the area, as well as the building of a R40-billion port by the government for mining exports at Boegoe Bay in Port Nolloth. The organisation’s initial main focus is on Australian-owned Mineral Sands Resources (MSR), which currently holds rights to mine valuable heavy minerals on the coast near the town of Lutzville.

MSR was also recently granted permission to extend its existing mining activities along an additional 10 beaches north of the existing Tormin mine, as well as an inland strandline mining area on the farm Geelwal Karoo 262. “The Tormin Mine extension should never have been allowed,” said Schlebach. “These miners have been running rampant for far too long. They have mostly got away with it because the area is so remote it is a case of out of sight, out of mind. We aim to change that.”

It is highly probable that MSR would not be allowed to conduct similar mining activities in Australia. “To propose to dig up 50km of the most pristine and beautiful untouched beaches is overstepping every boundary,” said Durban’s Grant “Twiggy” Baker, a 2017 world big wave champion, West Coast regular and founding PTWC board member. “Imagine if this same proposal was to restrict access and dig up every beach on the Australian west coast from Cape Mentelle to Cape Leeuwin. This is exactly what we are dealing with here.”

The Centre for Environmental Rights has recently launched an administrative appeal of the decision to approve the expansion of the Tormin mine. It has also launched a judicial review in the high court to set aside Creecy’s refusal to uphold an appeal against the environmental authorisation issued to Tormin to allow the mining on the 10 beaches and the inland mining area.

PTWC hopes to build on appeals such as these and to combine all of the efforts of current activist organisations, including the Western Cape First Nations Collective, and journalists, researchers and academics. Thousands of private individuals responded to its first major campaign for support and volunteers.

“The public needs to know what these mining companies do,” explained Schlebach. “Part of the criteria for being given the rights to mine is that the miners rehabilitate each mining location once they are done. This, however, doesn’t always play out and the mess is often left for someone else to clean up – or not. These are highly diverse, ecologically sensitive areas on land and in the sea that are being completely destroyed.”

The PTWC began in late November with a petition to Creecy. Its awareness campaign aimed to increase public appeals against the authorisation granted to MSR to prospect on land adjacent to the Olifants estuary.

Protect The West Coast is just getting started and the organisation is planning many more interventions. “In humanity’s global quest to protect natural open spaces,” said Schlebach, “corporations and mining companies have to start considering the good of the planet.

These areas are far more valuable being protected – they are for future generations. It is time for change and it is time for us all to put the natural world first and foremost before it is too late.” DM168

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper which is available for free to Pick n Pay Smart Shoppers at these Pick n Pay stores.

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article ... st%20Coast

[Alf]

[Lisbeth]

Assault on the West Coast: Inside the illegal diamond mining applications

By Kevin Bloom• 3 October 2021


The Olifants River estuary on the West Coast near Lutzville. (Photo: John Yeld)

In the past few months, the Atlantic west coast in the region of the Olifants River estuary has sustained a barrage of new diamond mining applications. The documents reveal a litany of legally questionable oversights, including a failure to assess the needs of local communities. But the most disturbing evidence concerns the environmental consultant who has written most of the reports — according to the law, she is not qualified to work unsupervised.

I.

On the face of it, aside from the biodiversity, there’s not much that the Selati Game Reserve and the Olifants River estuary have in common. Where the former, situated between the towns of Gravelotte and Hoedspruit in Limpopo Province, hosts a species of African cycad that can be found nowhere else on earth, the latter, situated on the Atlantic seaboard around 250km north of Cape Town, hosts the greatest concentration of birdlife on the Namaqualand west coast.

In Selati you’ll find rich grasslands, bushveld riverine ecosystems and an abundance of the “Big Five”; in the Olifants River estuary, it’s all about lesser and greater flamingos, African black oystercatchers and Caspian and swift terns.

Two different biomes, two entirely different worlds — which, if nothing else, speaks to the awesome depth and breadth of South Africa’s natural heritage. But, in the complex paperwork that hardly anyone outside of nature conservation or mining officialdom reads, there is a thread that ties Selati to the estuary in a narrative of brazen environmental malfeasance.

Looked at from Daily Maverick’s perspective, the narrative begins in April 2021, when we published the first part of our “Mordor at the Gates” series. Back then, while investigating the circumstances behind the mining application that had been lodged “out of nowhere” across 10,000ha of Selati’s northern stretches, we came across a company by the name of Sakal and Tebo (Pty) Ltd. It was this small company that had been retained by the applicant, an equally small entity trading as Tiara Mining, to prepare the environmental impact documentation for submission to the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy.

Sakal and Tebo, it turned out, had submitted a final scoping report that was “fatally flawed,” with key information missing and an inaccurate description of mining activities. As for the environmental impact assessment, the more important document, the company neglected to mention that the entirety of the Selati Game Reserve had been classified as ecologically “irreplaceable”.

In the second part of the series, when Daily Maverick looked into the background of the company’s sole director, an environmental assessment practitioner (EAP) by the name of Melvyn Mandla Masango, we found that he had misrepresented his memberships and affiliations on the official government forms. These breaches, it was clear to us, were in direct contravention of the codes of conduct of the two organisations that had been legislated to hold South Africa’s EAPs to account — the Environmental Assessment Practitioners Association of South Africa (Eapasa), and the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions (Sacnasp).

What we didn’t mention was Masango’s partner on the project, an EAP by the name of Yvonne Gutoona, who had signed off on the documentation not only on behalf of Sakal and Tebo but in some instances on behalf of Masango himself.

Although Gutoona was not a director of Sakal and Tebo, she was, as Daily Maverick knew at the time, one of two directors in a company called Archean Resources, which she neglected to disclose in the paperwork. This company, as our sources at Selati informed us, had also been hired by Tiara Mining — specifically, its founder Robert Michael Scholtz, who had been convicted of illicit diamond trading in 1985 — to prepare specialist environmental reports. The work, we learnt, had been farmed out by Archean Resources to third parties.

More significant than these irregularities, however, was the fact that neither Masango nor Gutoona seemed to be legally or technically qualified to compile reports on their own. In terms of the Natural Scientific Professions Act of 2003, according to which all natural scientists need to be registered with Sacnasp in order to practice, there are three levels of qualification: candidate natural scientist at the bottom, certified natural scientist in the middle and professional natural scientist at the top.

As section 22(2) of the act states:

• “A certificated natural scientist or candidate natural scientist… may only perform work in the natural scientific professions under the supervision and control of a professional natural scientist.”

Although Masango was registered with Sacnasp as a candidate natural scientist and Gutoona as a certified natural scientist, there was no evidence in any of the reports that either of them had been supervised by a professional natural scientist.

In the event, things turned out well for Selati. A few weeks after our second feature was published, we received word that the mining application had been withdrawn — partly due, we were told, to the “public spotlight” that Daily Maverick had shone on the case. But in September 2021, when we began looking into a strange flareup of mining applications on South Africa’s west coast, the thread picked up again.

On an alarming number of the new applications, Yvonne Gutoona, as a director of Archean Resources, was listed as the EAP.

II.

At the outset of this investigation, we had two questions for Neo Motlholwa, the legal counsel at Sacnasp. First, we wanted to know, did the law require the name of the supervising scientist to appear on all forms submitted to the DMRE? Second, if not, was there any other way to check whether a candidate or certified natural scientist was working under the required supervision?

The law, Motlholwa informed us, was clear:

• “The name of the professional natural scientist (the ‘supervising scientist’) not only needs to appear on the DMRE paperwork but the DMRE paperwork may only be signed off by the said professional natural scientist.”

In the first four applications to the DMRE that Daily Maverick came across, basic assessment reports and environmental management programme reports for a pair of companies named Cape Zircon (Pty) Ltd and Buchuberg Resources (Pty) Ltd, Gutoona, who was listed as the sole EAP, was also the sole signatory. Covering a combined area of about 118,000ha on the southern banks of the Olifants River — and abutting its precious estuary — the four reports are essentially an application for prospecting rights to diamonds, gold and a variety of heavy minerals. Given that the name of a supervising scientist does not appear anywhere in these documents, they are all clearly unlawful. But the lack of supervision, as Daily Maverick would discover, came with a bunch of further consequences too.

In the general comments submitted to Gutoona on 17 May 2021, Natural Justice, a Cape Town-based environmental and land rights non-profit, points out that the reports are all “vague and high-level”. They not only “fail to provide site-specific assessments of impacts of the proposed activities,” the lawyers at Natural Justice state, they also “fail to provide sufficient details upon which a decision-maker can make informed and defensible decisions.”

In the specific comments, Gutoona’s work is then properly picked apart at its legally questionable seams. The objections begin with the “need and desirability” provisions of section 24(O) the National Environmental Management Act (Nema), to which the former Department of Environmental Affairs — now the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries — provided a detailed guideline in 2017.

Chapter 4 of the guideline, as Natural Justice notes, demands that the “need for and desirability of a proposed activity should specifically and explicitly be addressed” throughout the entirety of the environmental impact assessment process. Yet, it appears, in each of the four reports covering this somewhat massive area of the Atlantic west coast, Gutoona has given “barely more than a page” to need and desirability.

In this context, other than a “vague reference to policy objectives that promote the applicants’ own prospecting and mining plans,” the reports “fail to consider” any planning, environmental, heritage or economic policy objectives of the local or provincial government.

The same thing applies, according to Natural Justice, when it comes to alternatives to mining that Nema requires all reports to assess, including the “no-go” option. The alternatives, it is alleged, have “not been fully explored” while the no-go option is simply non-existent. In other words, for Cape Zircon and Buchuberg Resources, if we are to take their EAP at her word, not mining is not an option.

This, aside from the legislative problem, is problematic for the following reason:

• “According to the West Coast District Municipality IDP and Spatial Development Framework Plan, traditionally the West Coast District’s primary economic sectors consisted of agriculture and fishing.”

It is here that Gutoona’s “failure to consider” climate change — only two brief mentions in the entirety of each 100-plus page report, it appears — comes into stark and disturbing focus.

As Natural Justice makes clear in light of the water usage requirements that these four applications represent:

• “Agriculture is also the biggest user of water in the district, mostly under irrigation, despite the district being considered as water-scarce. As such, the West Coast District Municipality recognises climate change as a threat to the environment, its residents, and to future development.”

Given all of this, Natural Justice’s position, as an “interested and affected party,” is that the proposed mining activities are neither needed nor desirable. Here, again, the reasons for their stance are obvious: “[Agriculture] remains one of the most important drivers of economic growth in the district, relying heavily on access and use of water to sustain and develop the sector for the benefit of the local economy and for the benefit of providing for food security.”

And yet despite the above, we are still only a third of the way through Natural Justice’s objections. Their issues with Gutoona’s work continue for another seven pages, including “failure to assess water supply”, “failure to consider availability of licenced waste disposal sites”, “failure to adequately assess biodiversity” and a general failure, outlined in a number of lengthy and detailed paragraphs, to fulfil the obligations of the all-important process of public participation.

III.

So who, on this specific suite of jobs, are Yvonne Gutoona’s clients?

A CIPC search reveals that Cape Zircon and Buchuberg Resources share the same directors: Lambertus Marthinius Cilliers, Jacobus Kotze van Niekerk and Vincent Sebatli Madlela.

Cilliers, it turns out, otherwise known as “Bertus,” is also listed as the “Head of Angolan Operations” for the Trans Hex Group, one of South Africa’s largest diamond mining concerns. Van Niekerk, as far as Daily Maverick could ascertain, is the same person named in a 2018 report by Richard Poplak as the “managing member” of a company called Ambicor, which was on contract at the time to Alexkor — the state-owned diamond mining company — to perform environmentally devastating cofferdam jobs off the Northern Cape coast. Madlela we couldn’t get a signal on, until we came across the minutes of a public participation meeting that Buchuberg Resources hosted at the Doringbaai community hall on 6 May 2021.

“Mr Madlela used to be a legal consultant for MSR,” the minutes stated.

This would be the same MSR, short for Mineral Sands Resources, that in 2019 was granted the right to massively expand its Tormin beach mining operation near Lutzville on the Olifants River. Owned by the Australian company Mineral Commodities Ltd, MSR was given the go-ahead by the South African government to mine 10 additional beaches — without having to apply for a new mining right or undertake a full environmental impact assessment for the expanded area.

In the high court challenge that the Centre for Environmental Rights subsequently brought against the decision — a decision that the government had doubled down on when they dismissed the appeals — MSR was required to disclose the environmental performance assessment reports for the entire Tormin operation, including the additional beaches.

Obtained by Daily Maverick, the documents, which are a legislative requirement, had been signed off by a familiar name. Acting this time on behalf of Jomela Consulting, and referring to herself as an independent “professional natural scientist,” Gutoona’s signature appeared on the 2019 and 2020 reports as the sole environmental consultant.

Was this a blatant misrepresentation of her qualifications? While Gutoona did not respond to Daily Maverick’s request for comment, there was one more document on which we found her name — representing Archean Resources again, the client was Moonstone Diamond Marketing, and one of the “contact persons” was Madlela himself.

The document was a draft scoping report, submitted to DMRE on 30 August 2021, for an amended prospecting licence on a 70km stretch of coast directly north of the Olifants River estuary. According to the CIPC, Moonstone’s directorships are all held by Trans Hex people, including chairman of the board (and former Springbok rugby player) Marcus Wentzel.

Like his Trans Hex colleague Bertus Cilliers, Wentzel did not offer comment for this piece. Neither, unfortunately, did Madlela.

Either way, discounting Tormin, Daily Maverick counted 128,000ha of pristine Atlantic coastline under Gutoona’s stewardship. There was no dispute from anyone that she was acting unsupervised. DM/OBP

[Lisbeth]

New documentary highlights mining destruction on South Africa’s West Coast


Aerial photo of mining on one of the beaches that is part of the extension of the Tormin Mining area just south of Brand se Baai. (Photo: Warren Witte)

By Julia Evans | 14 Dec 2021

While Shell’s seismic surveying has dominated headlines, the impact of mining on the West Coast has received relatively little attention. A local conservation documentary that tells the story of affected West Coast communities puts the issue in the spotlight.
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A new conservation documentary, Ours, Not Mine, brings attention to the devastation that mining on the West Coast has, and will have, on the ecology and the surrounding communities.

The documentary investigates the heavy mineral sand mining on the West Coast, which includes the industrial-scale extraction of diamonds, gemstones and heavy mineral sands like zircon and ilmenite, which are extracted along the coastline between Columbine and the Orange River, including parts that are officially deemed Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Areas.

https://youtu.be/BhQwx9Xk-Vo

Mike Schlebach, big-wave surfer and CEO of Protect the West Coast, said that some of the richest grades in the world of natural minerals – used in many household products from paint to cosmetics – had led to a “gold rush for the industrial-scale extraction”.

The documentary juxtaposes long panning shots of open, untouched beaches in the Western Cape with shots of sand heavily imprinted with tracks from trucks and excavators left behind by mining companies.

The film, directed by Bryan Little and produced by Ana-Filipa Domingues, highlights how the destructive, single-use nature of this mining affects the environment and the local communities’ way of life and livelihoods – with impacts on agriculture, fisheries and nature-based tourism.

Rosie Shoshola, who has worked in the fishing industry in Lambert’s Bay since she was 11 years old, said in the documentary, “The sea is in your blood. When she’s in your blood you’ll never let her go.”

Fisherman Nico Waldeck said, “Where I live, we are dependent on nature. If you bring that type of development here, what’s going to get preference: Is it the people, or is it the money?”

By incorporating voices from indigenous and local people, like elders from the Khoi Griqua people, who depend on the land and ocean for their livelihood, the film takes a multiperspective approach to the issue.


Rosie Shoshola, who has worked in the fishing industry in Lambert’s Bay since she was 11 years old. (Photo: Ours, Not Mine)

Anthony Andrews, paramount chief of the West Coast Guriqua Council, which represents the bloodline families in the area, said during a mine-prospecting public participation meeting, “With our own research, we have seen how over the years we have not been recognised.

“We are saying to that minister [Barbara Creecy], ‘No. You don’t have the land…. This is our heritage and you can’t come drill holes in our heritage. We don’t give you permission.’”

Zolani Mahola, singer, actress and storyteller, wrote the song Blood in the Flowers with Emma van Heyn for Ours, Not Mine after meeting the people involved in the story.

Mahola told Daily Maverick, “I was really excited at the thought of seemingly very different people coming together from very different vantage points… talking about farmers, talking about the fishermen, talking about the indigenous San population, coming together… speaking for one thing… That for me is the new paradigm.

“I think so much of the changes that have happened in the world with the pandemic have shown us just how separation and separatism is old news… There’s so much more juice out of coming together from seemingly very different parts.”


Different facets of the West Coast community, from farmers, small-scale fishers, and the indigenous Khoi and San people, come together to protect their home. (Photo: Ours, Not Mine)


An untouched, expansive beach on the coast that is under threat from expanding prospecting and mining. (Photo: Ours, Not Mine)

Environmental impact

Professor Merle Sowman from the Department of Environmental and Geographical Sciences at UCT explained to Daily Maverick the environmental impacts the mining would have on the coastline.

Sowman said the impacts will depend on where the mining will occur – on coastal land, on beaches, in the nearshore or offshore – and the method of mining.

“These impacts range from loss of biodiversity, groundwater contamination, shoreline erosion, disturbance of dunes and cliffs, impacts on macrofauna, fisheries resources and marine megafauna, as well as impacts on scarce water resources, air quality and most importantly, access to the coast and fishing grounds.

“The main concern is the cumulative impact of all these different prospecting and mining activities on our coastal and marine systems.”


Map of prospecting and mining applications on the West Coast put together by researchers from the Department of Environmental and Geographical Science at UCT and a Geographic Information Systems specialist. (Credit: Merle Sowman et al)

Researchers from the One Ocean Hub project in the Department of Environmental and Geographical Science at UCT have been tracking the various prospecting and mining applications on the West Coast and, with assistance from geographic information systems specialist Rio Button, have put together a “State of Knowledge” of prospecting and mining on the West Coast.

Sowman said the map is a work in progress and needs to be updated on an ongoing basis as the situation is changing so quickly.

For example, if you look at the map, the prospecting application submitted by Belton Park Trading earlier this year, which covers a large area offshore on the West Coast, has recently been approved.

“So, you can see, approvals are being granted across this coast quite rapidly,” said Sowman, referring to the map. “And my concern is that we don’t have an overarching understanding of the extent and scale of mining and what the potential cumulative impacts of all these activities are going to be on our marine and coastal environment.”


Paramount chief Anthony Andrews (centre) and Chief Nicolaas Booysens (right) at the ceremony at the end of the film. (Photo: Ours, Not Mine)


A warning sign on Hout Bay beach to raise awareness among locals about what could happen if mining on the West Coast is not stopped. (Photo: Ours, Not Mine)

Pressure on government

Sowman said the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) is responsible for approving applications for prospecting or mining on the West Coast – they grant the environmental authorisation.

“Of course, there is a lot of concern about the minister of DMRE having the authority to give environmental authorisation, when DMRE’s main mandate is the exploitation and development of our mineral resources,” said Sowman.

While the DMRE reviews and approves the environmental impact assessments, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment is the appeal authority – meaning if civil society wants to appeal the DMRE’s authorisation, they have to appeal to Creecy.

“While there have been various appeals to the minister of the environment, she has generally not upheld these appeals and approved prospecting and mining in areas which, in my opinion, are unsuitable for mining,” said Sowman.

“A case in point is the recent appeal against environmental authorisation for prospecting on coastal land on the northern banks of the Olifants estuary, one of our most important estuaries in South Africa. Despite 35 appeals, the minister approved this application.”

Not considering the whole picture

Sowman said her main concern is around the number of environment authorisations that are being granted for prospecting and mining on the West Coast that don’t seem to be considering the cumulative impact.

“The key concern is that these decisions are being taken on an ad hoc basis,” said Sowman.

“There’s no government agency that is considering and assessing the cumulative impacts of all these mining applications and operations on our coastal and marine environment and how changes to these systems may affect our main economic activities – fishing, agriculture and tourism – on the West Coast.”

Letter to Minister Creecy

The documentary premiered on 6 December, just after Schlebach’s non-profit organisation Protect the West Coast sent a letter to Creecy on 25 November regarding the mining activity along the West Coast.

The letter highlighted how decisions are being made on an ad hoc basis without conducting a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) or having in place an Environmental Management Framework.

The letter called on Creecy’s office to “ensure that current mining activities take place according to environmental conditions required by the relevant Environmental Management Programmes” and to “place a moratorium on all further prospecting and mining applications until a government-commissioned SEA has been completed for the West Coast to specifically identify whether mining, as a land use, is appropriate”.

As with the documentary, various parts of the community came together to show their support, from NGOs, to researchers, farmers, small-scale fishers, and the indigenous Khoi and San people.

The letter was accompanied by a petition to protect the West Coast, which at that stage had more than 58,000 signatures.

“Civil society is having to play a huge role in being the watchdogs and holding government to account for decisions being made,” said Sowman.

“I guess there’s concern that our government officials are not giving due consideration to the environmental and social impacts of these proposals and development applications.”


Overview of activities at the Tormin mine extension run by Mineral Sands Resources. (Photo: Supplied)

Out of sight, out of mind

Despite having devastating impacts on the environment and humans, the climate crisis and environmental or conservation issues are often ignored because of their “slow nature”, which Robert Nixon described as “slow violence” in his 2011 book, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor.

“By slow violence I mean a violence that occurs gradually and out of sight, a violence of delayed destruction that is dispersed across time and space, an attritional violence that is typically not viewed as violence at all,” said Nixon.

As with many environmental issues, it is difficult for the destruction of the West Coast to sustain the attention of the public as it is a crisis that spans over months or even years.

“I think what one is hoping is that through these kinds of interventions… you’re going to increase public awareness of what’s happening on the coast,” said Sowman.

“Because I think one of the problems is that many of these areas are far away from the public eye, and so people don’t really know what’s happening on the coast.

“If this kind of mining was proposed on Muizenberg beach or one of our popular beaches, there would be an uproar. But because these activities are taking place in areas that are out of sight and out of mind – although not for the local communities who live there – there’s not a high level of awareness of what’s going on.

“People are only going to feel the impact once access to their fishing grounds or favourite coastal recreation area is restricted.

“Right now, there’s a massive focus on seismic testing, which, of course, is a major environmental concern. But while that is occurring on the east coast, there’s this huge environmental threat along the West Coast, which is just not being given the same attention.” DM/OBP

[Lisbeth]

Please watch the video; it will show you a South Africa which you probably do not know much about....If you do not come from the Western Cape or have been visiting. It is such a wonderful and unique place!

Sign the petition here.

[Lisbeth]

Seismic surveys: Shell’s gone — but another devil has arrived


Illustrative image | Sources: Unsplash / Gabriel Dizzi | Vecteezy

By Onke Ngcuka | 18 Jan 2022

An Australian company is conducting seismic surveys on the West Coast, but NGOs have challenged the move.

Shell has gone to hell — or on a break until it figures out how to proceed with its planned seismic surveys off the Wild Coast. But while environmentalists were focused on booting out the global oil and gas company, another seismic survey programme took off this weekend.

The latest bout of seismic activity is being conducted by Australian geological data company Searcher Geodata, across the West Coast of South Africa, stretching from Cape Columbine, about 170km north of Cape Town, to Namibia.

The area in which the exploration is taking place is called the Orange Basin. Searcher Geodata is expected to conduct its survey along about 10,000km2 of the about 22,000km2 of the Reconnaissance Permit application area. The company will conduct 2D and/or 3D seismic survey programmes between the Orange River mouth (a Ramsar site) and Cape Columbine. SLR South Africa has been appointed the independent environmental assessment practitioner for the seismic programme, with the Petroleum Agency of South Africa granting Searcher the permit.


The areas of interest for Searcher Geodata in the seismic survey programme, between Orange River Mouth and Cape Columbine. (Source: Google Maps)

Searcher Geodata has been granted exploration rights in an area where 11 rights holders (made up of 16 other companies) have exploration rights. These rights holders include;

• Kosmos Energy/Shell/OK Energy

• PetroSA

• Ricocure/Azinam/Africa Oil

• Sezigyn

• Sunbird/PetroSA

• Sungu Sungu

• Total Energies/Seizgyn

• Total Energies/Impact Africa

• Total Energies/Shell/PetroSA

• Thombo Petroleum/Main Street/Panoro / Azinam

• Tosaco Energy

Continued mining activity along the coast and in oceans has been discouraged by a group of scientists under the Scientific Advisory Group of Emergencies who say that there is a chance of real harm to marine life should seismic activity continue, particularly in the case of Shell, though the case is relevant to the Searcher Geodata as well.

Research from the Georgia Coastal Research Council has previously found that species likely to be affected by seismic survey activity mainly include several species of whales and sea turtles. Physiological responses to the blasting can include increased stress hormone levels and decreased immune responses. Marine animals close to the surveying are most likely to experience physical injury, with those further from the activity likely to undergo increased behavioural and physiological stress responses.

“Given a relative dearth of evidence on the impact of seismic surveys on marine life in South African waters, coupled with the uncertainties about the harm that may be suffered if Shell’s survey is permitted to resume, lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for refusing or postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation. Instead, a precautionary approach is warranted,” the scientists said. The advisory group said that some of the methods used in the surveys were outdated and new technologies with less environmental impact should be taken up.

According to the Coastal Justice Network, 30 small-scale fishing communities that have longstanding roots along the coastline were not consulted in the process of granting the Australian company environmental rights. Some of these communities include indigenous and traditional fishing communities. For others, it is a livelihood, while for some it is a means of food security.

In response to the activity that Searcher Geodata is conducting, the fishing communities and their lawyers sent a letter to Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe. In the letter, the fishing communities air their grievances and concerns over the approval of the application by Searcher Geodata.

“They have not bothered to consult us and engage us on this proposed survey or explain it to us. We were not provided with any information about it. In addition, we are informed by support organisations that they have not undertaken an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and obtained environmental authorisation in terms of NEMA (National Environmental Management Act) 107 of 1998 as required,” the small-scale fishers stated.

NEMA 107 of 1998 states in its preamble,

“…The State must respect, protect, promote and fulfil the social, economic and environmental rights of everyone and strive to meet the basic needs of previously disadvantaged communities; inequality in the distribution of wealth and resources, and the resultant poverty, are among the important causes as well as the results of environmentally harmful practices…”

The document further states “…that the disturbance of landscapes and sites that constitute the nation’s cultural heritage is avoided, or where it cannot be altogether avoided, is minimised and remedied…”

The recent ruling in which Makhanda High Court Judge Gerald Bloem granted an interdict for oil and petrol company Shell to immediately stop the seismic survey along the Wild Coast unless and until environmental authorisation had been conducted in line with NEMA of 1998. The ruling was hailed as a precedent for other oil and gas companies seeking to conduct any petroleum exploration in South African waters.

Searcher Geodata has followed in the footsteps of how multinational Shell went about its business and activists hope that the law will respond to the Australian company in the same way it did with Shell.

Dr Dylan McGarry, senior researcher at the Environmental Learning Research Centre (ELRC), at Rhodes University and a member of the Coastal Justice Network, told Daily Maverick that the environmental report for the granting of Searcher Geodata’s permit report was made available to a select few. The more than 900-page report was made available online for only 24 hours.

“It’s really fishy for us,” Dr McGarry said. “They are saying that they’re going to stay away from where small-scale fishers fish…The one major thing is there is an existential threat [the small-scale fishing communities]. But the long-term effect is that the gateway could destroy a whole cultural heritage which includes the Cape Malay heritage.”

“It could potentially have a direct impact on specific species that are at the core of livelihoods for a very vulnerable sector that has food security impact. The small-scale fishers rely on snoek and they rely on rock lobster for their income and livelihood. But also, snoek is deeply connected to cultural practices,” McGarry said.

The researcher said that while exploration and extractivism had been touted as economically beneficial to affected communities, history had shown that this had not been the case. Often communities were left poorer, with a further damaged environment and poorer-grade natural resources, such as contaminated water.

As Searcher Geodata plans to conduct its programme until next month, it is unclear whether it will get to complete its project.

The Coastal Justice Network will take the company and the DMRE to court over the blasting in the hope the company will receive the “booting” that Shell received. DM/OBP

[Lisbeth]

Court bid to halt West Coast seismic survey: Company asks for more time to draft responding affidavit

By Onke Ngcuka | 25 Jan 2022

Civic organisations and small-scale fishers have refused to back down on the urgency of court proceedings to halt blasting off the West Coast.
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Survey company Searcher Geodata UK, its Australian subsidiary and others have filed a motion with the Cape Town High Court to oppose an urgent interdict application by several organisations and small-scale fishers to stop an ongoing seismic survey off the West Coast.

Earlier in the day, the legal team for the respondents wrote to the applicants asking for more time to draft a responding affidavit. The respondents had been given six calendar days — they asked for two weeks instead.


“In fairness, the above period is entirely unreasonable… we urgently call upon you to agree a reasonable timetable to regulate these proceedings,” the legal team said.

The respondents are the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE), the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE), the Petroleum Agency South Africa (Pasa), BGP Pioneer (Searcher’s ship), Searcher Geodata UK and its Australian subsidiary.

Daily Maverick reported on Friday that several civic organisations, and small-scale fishers who said their livelihoods would be affected by the surveys, had filed an urgent interdict against Searcher Geodata UK.

In a response letter on Monday, the applicants’ legal team said the applicants were dominus litis (benefactors of a favourable judgment) and the set timeframe (six days) was to deal with the urgency of the matter.

“In the circumstances, the timelines set out in the notice of motion are reasonable. Without an undertaking, Searcher’s request for two calendar weeks to file answering affidavits while blasting is unreasonable,” said the letter, signed by attorney Wilmien Wicomb.

Gilbert Martin, founder of civic organisation We are South Africans, told Daily Maverick that the organisation had not yet heard from the DMRE, DFFE and Pasa.

“But, unfortunately, this is how big business treats the People of South Africa and has always treated them. [Energy Minister Gwede] Mantashe always accuses others of ‘apartheid-style tactics’ but this is exactly what he and this government pretend to hate but at the same time is what they apply in their own methods and actions,” Martin said.

The matter is due to be heard in court on 7 February. DM/OBP

[Lisbeth]

Dear Minister Gwede Mantashe: There is an urgent need for a moratorium on applications for prospecting and mining on the West Coast

By Protect the West Coast | 27 Jan 2022

The historical legacy of mining in South Africa leaves catastrophic damage to the land, and to the wellbeing, heritage and livelihoods of communities affected by it. On the current trajectory, the West Coast will follow the same path.
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We write to you as Protect the West Coast (PTWC), a not-for-profit company committed to ensure that mining on the West Coast of South Africa is conducted in accordance with the fundamental environmental rights enshrined in our Constitution, applicable environmental and mining statutes, and the correct fulfilment of authorisations granted to companies that mine on the West Coast.

We write to record our serious concerns about an avalanche of mining and prospecting applications on the West Coast, and the haste to grant them by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE).

A diagrammatic depiction of these applications is featured below for your reference.



This information had to be obtained and collated by PTWC and its membership because this information is not, as it should be, readily available on the DMRE’s website. We also note the constant flux this situation finds itself in as more applications are made and approved.

As you can see, almost the entire coastline from Elands Bay to Alexander Bay, approximately 500km, is under application for prospecting or mining. This includes significant areas inland and offshore. The mining activities include, as you know, oil and gas interests, diamonds and heavy mineral sands. The cumulative impact of this activity has not been considered, studied or reported on. Instead, each application is considered ad hoc and granted in all instances that PTWC is aware of. The inevitable outcome is that the entire coastline will be prospected or mined.

You have personally inspected mines here and know the unique challenges in this area. You will know the common mining-related impacts. Among these are mines closing without due closure process, the lack of proper rehabilitation, the ongoing extraction of South Africa’s mineral wealth and the movement of that wealth offshore, the lack of due and proper oversight, and the concomitant and severe environmental degradation that follows.

Then there is the social impact — the lack of meaningful and lasting job creation, the persistent failure to realise social investment in communities, the failure to prioritise the employment of local people, and the failure to transfer skills into communities adjacent to the mines.

This part of our country is home to one of the oldest indigenous cultures on Earth, who must survive in a region that is incredibly water-scarce. This critically important biodiverse region — in terms of terrestrial and marine fauna and flora — supports and sustains key fisheries resources. This makes it well-positioned for nature-based tourism, with direct beneficial impact on communities, who also rely on land-based uses such as agriculture, a key employer.

In contrast to the above, mining, by its nature, is a single-use activity that is finite and destructive. It is anathema to other established or potential land, coastal and marine uses.

The historical legacy of mining in South Africa leaves catastrophic damage to the land, and to the wellbeing, heritage and livelihoods of communities affected by it. On the current trajectory, the West Coast will follow the same path unless something is urgently done to arrest this wholesale handover of our invaluable heritage to mining interests.

The irony is not lost on PTWC that the DMRE’s mandate is to promote mining and that in granting applications the DMRE fulfils its mandate. The mandate, however, does not exist in a vacuum. The DMRE has myriad legal obligations to the citizens of South Africa and, more particularly, to the local communities who live and work on the West Coast, and whose existence relies on the very resources that are imperilled by mining.

The oversight of mining operations and proper compliance with the conditions of authorisations granted is largely absent. The watchdog role the DMRE is mandated to provide is sorely lacking. This breeds a culture of non-compliance and puts the burden of this oversight role firmly on civil society.

Given what we have set out above, PTWC urgently calls on the minister to place a moratorium on applications for prospecting and mining on the West Coast until a Strategic Environmental Assessment is completed.

Spearheaded by the government, this assessment needs to guide decision-makers on applications for prospecting and mining applications to ensure that the obligations of the DMRE are fulfilled. Guided by the DMRE obligations to the citizens of our country, this assessment needs to provide a framework for present and future generations to adopt a cautious and risk-averse approach.

Finally, this assessment must ensure that the communities of the West Coast — their heritage and their future — are not impoverished in pursuit of the short-term benefits touted by the mining houses.

Kindly confirm receipt of this letter and respond in writing by 28 February 2022 to the urgent call for a moratorium to be placed on mining and prospecting applications on the West Coast.

Yours sincerely,

Mike Schlebach — Protect the West Coast NPC
Dylan McGarry — Coastal Justice Network/One Ocean Hub
Hilda Adams — South African Small Scale Fishers Collective and Fishers United
Naseegh Jaffer — Masifundise
Jan Engelbrecht — Farming Collective
Kendyl Wright — Wild Oceans & Wild Trust
Senior Chief Johannes Links — West Coast Guriqua San Bloodline Families
Serge Raemaekers — Abalobi
Liziwe McDaid — Green Connections
Andre Cloete — Coastal Links
Rhiaan Coetzee — Olifantsrivier Viskomitee DM/OBP

Protect the West Coast (PTWC) is a collective of concerned South Africans (including scientists, journalists, activists and media experts) who work for a not-for-profit organisation to ensure that mining on the West Coast of South Africa is conducted with the correct and proper oversight in accordance with fundamental principles of the law.

[Lisbeth]

CREECY, MANTASHE FACING MORE LEGAL BATTLES OVER SEISMIC SURVEYS OFF SA COAST

Several small scale fishermen will be at the Cape Town High Court challenging what they believe was the rushed and dangerous approval of searches for oil and gas reserves.

Saya Pierce-Jones | 06.02. 2022

CAPE TOWN - Ministers Barbara Creecy and Gwede Mantashe are being taken to court on Monday over their approval of more seismic surveys off South Africa's coast.

Several small-scale fishermen will be at the Cape Town High Court challenging what they believe was the rushed and dangerous approval of searches for oil and gas reserves.

The mineral resources and environmental department ministers are co-respondents in the case, alongside the likes of the Petroleum Agency of South Africa.

Despite this pending legal action, communities in the Saldanha Bay region said that the seismic boom surveys were already taking place.

Christian Adams, a fisherman from the West Coast's Steenberg cove, said that both Gwede and Creecy had failed to engage with or protect the fishing community.

"We as small-scale fishers have always been at the back end and we've been suffering. On top of that, this may be a crisis that we are facing in terms of this seismic survey that is happening here," Adams said.

Monday's case follows a landmark ruling in December, where an interim interdict was issued against oil giant Shell and their own seismic surveys.

Judge Gerald Bloem found Shell's consultation process was flawed and therefore unlawful.

Adams said that in this case, not a single small-scale fisherman or group was consulted beforehand.

"We've heard from other parts of the works where these seismic surveys were done and it's not very good, from the scientific reports. We feel that the damage and harm that will be done to the ocean will be irreparable," Adams said.

[Lisbeth]

COURT HALTS AUSTRALIAN FIRM'S SEISMIC SURVEY OFF SA'S WEST COAST

The Western Cape High Court on Monday ordered that the survey immediately comes to a halt pending a hearing next month.

Lauren Isaacs | 08.02.2022

CAPE TOWN - An interim interdict has been granted against Australian multinational company, Searcher Seismic, that had started blasting off the West Coast in late January.

The Western Cape High Court on Monday ordered that the survey immediately comes to a halt pending a hearing next month.

A group of small-scale fishermen and environmental campaigners believed that the risk posed to marine resources from the surveys was far too high.

Founder at We Are South Africans, Gilbert Martin: "We got wind of the documentation on the 30th of December so it appeared very quietly, the reconnaissance permit was granted and no one was consulted on any level last year and on the 6th of December they were granted the reconnaissance permit and in December, no one was even aware that there was even an objective term - communities were supposed to be consulted but they just didn't bother engaging with any of the communities."

Martin said that the biggest problem was that people were not consulted ahead of the process.

"Once you have the impact assessment, the biggest part of any application is your public participation process and this is where they fell down both on the Wild Coast and the West Coast - they didn't consult with me, they didn't consult with you, they didn't consult with any South African. They just smelled a bunch of companies and said it was OK," Martin said