Interdict against Mapungubwe coal mining in September

August 12, 2010

An application for an interdict to stop coal mining at Mapungubwe will be made to the High Court in Johannesburg in September, an environmental group said on Thursday.

"We have filed an interdict to stop mining activities but Coal of Africa still has to reply or respond," said Johan Verhoef, Peace Parks Foundation chief.

"We predict that the application to the court will be made mid to late September."

Several environmental groups filed the interdict to stop mining company, Coal of Africa, from constructing an open-cast coal mine about six kilometres from the Mapungubwe World Heritage site in Limpopo.

The heritage site is where the world-famous 800-year-old gold rhino statuette was unearthed in 1933 and opponents of the development feel the mine is too close to the heritage site.

The groups include the Mapungubwe Action Group, the Endangered Wildlife Trust, the Association of Southern African Professional Archaeologists, Peace Parks Foundation, World Wide Fund for Nature South Africa, BirdLife South Africa and the Wilderness Foundation South Africa.
They are being represented in court by the Centre for Applied Legal Studies.

The mining company stopped certain construction activities at its new Vele coal mine after receiving a compliance notice from the department of environmental affairs on Tuesday.

The company had allegedly not completed the necessary Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA).

Verhoef said the damage already done to the site on a daily basis over the past few months "is largely irreversible".

"Indigenous vegetation and thousands of tons of top soil was removed.

"The company built a very wide access road-- apparently 40 metres wide--and this is virgin bush. It is very difficult to get what we call 'Mopane bush veld' to grow again," he said. - Sapa