No mining will take place in Mabola Protected Environment for now By John Yeld The Supreme Court of Appeal has dismissed an attempt by coal mining company Atha-Africa Ventures to appeal a High Court decision that reversed the hush-hush government approval it had for its proposed coal mine in an environmentally sensitive area in Mpumalanga. Atha-Africa, a local subsidiary of India-based transnational mining...

Environmental and activist groups appeal decision By John Yeld Government has given Australian-owned Tormin mine the go-ahead to vastly expand its current extraction of mineral sands on ten additional West Coast beaches and on an inland strip of old beach adjoining the existing mine near Lutzville. It has also condoned illegal activities by the mine, for which its owner Mineral Sands Resources (MSR)...

Judge refuses to grant access to documents By John Yeld Cape High Court Judge Judith Cloete dismissed with costs a discovery application brought by three of six defendants ahead of a defamation case totalling R9.25m. The six are being sued by Australian mineral sands mining company Mineral Commodities Ltd (MRC); its executive chairman, venture capitalist Mark Caruso; MRC’s South African subsidiary Mineral Sands...

But some mines will continue to fight class action suit By Ciaran Ryan Lawyers for thousands of gold miners afflicted by silicosis or tuberculosis lined up on the side of six mining groups this week to ask the Gauteng High Court to approve a R5 billion settlement agreement. The agreement provides for the payment of benefits worth R5 billion to mineworkers and the...

Amadiba activist sued for R7.5 million By John Yeld Controversial Australian venture capitalist Mark Caruso and one of his mining companies want to add four more claims totalling R2 million to their defamation case against South African social worker, writer and human rights activist John GI Clarke. Clarke has been involved with Amadiba community members who are strongly resisting mining of the titanium-rich...

Environmental Affairs Minister Nomvula Mokonyane has been taken to court after government failed to alert the public about its plan to weaken South Africa’s SO₂ emission standard. By Tony Carnie More than seven million people die prematurely every year at the hands of a silent, global killer. Often invisible, the World Health Organisation has fingered the culprit as the increasing volume...

Government releases guidelines for municipalities to integrate Informal waste pickers into the economy By Zoë Postman According to a report by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSRI), waste pickers are estimated to collect 80 to 90% of discarded packaging and paper in the country. It is estimated that this saves municipalities hundreds of millions in landfill space. Yet waste pickers receive very...

Charges dropped against prominent public interest lawyer Richard Spoor By John Yeld Charges against prominent public interest lawyer Richard Spoor have been withdrawn. Spoor was charged with unlawfully and intentionally assaulting a police general “by pointing him with a finger”; disobeying an order by the police general to “keep quiet and not advance to the podium”; and “waiving hands” at an unnamed MEC (actually a...

New Wild Coast route shortens road by 75km but passes through ancestral land By Zoë Postman The South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL), the Department of Environmental Affairs and Sinegugu Zukulu, a resident of the Umgungundlovu community in the Eastern Cape, were back in court on Monday over the construction of the N2 Highway through the Wild Coast. The new road extends about 560km between...

Gwede Mantashe is concerned about mining being halted, but the judgment is an incentive for the industry to change the way it operates By Wilmien Wicomb South Africans have spent much of 2018 debating whether the Constitution must be amended to explicitly provide for expropriation of land without compensation. Lost in this debate is the reality that thousands of South Africans have...