Minister to appear in court

Minerals and Energy minister Buyelwa Sonjica may be held in contempt of court for failing to adhere to stipulations in an interdict preventing coal mining operations on portions of the farm Lusthof in Mpumalanga.
The Mpumalanga Lakes District Protection Group (MLDPG) obtained the interdict in 2006, based on concerns about irregularities in the issuing of a license.
The minister was ordered to provide the plaintiffs with documentation on which the initial granting of the license was based. MLDPG chairperson Koos Pretorius said the group has waited for months for the minister to hand in the information, but so far she’s only supplied a few pages of the 54-page document.
Pretorius insists the department is taking shortcuts in issuing the mining license, which he argues is unconstitutional.
“The pre-licencing assessment process should be carried out in not less than three years, but it will be done in just six months, not giving the applicant and landowner sufficient time to make proper investigations,” he said.
The MLDPG said it’ll also challenge the licensing process in the Constitutional Court. If successful, this would mean all licenses issued under the relevant act are invalid.
Pretorius believes if there’s no drastic intervention in the haphazard way in which mining licenses are issued, the whole country will suffer. He said for every rand made through coal mining, about R3 to R4 of income would be lost through the impact on the economy of the loss of water and destructive land use. – Peter Mashala