Makhado Colliery: Built first. Appeal decided afterwards.
MC Mining built Makhado while the appeal to decide whether the mine could be built at all remained undecided. More than five years have passed. Then, on 6 October 2026, Minister David Maynier dismissed the appeal.
By then, the mine was built. This is our report-back to everyone who signed, shared and stood with the 2025 campaign.
Makhado Colliery, company promotional image, August 2026
We raised the alarm
In November 2024, construction commenced at Makhado Colliery. Reports began to surface in December that year. We gathered evidence and raised the alarm.
In March 2025, Carte Blanche’s “Baobab Bomb” exposé brought the MMSEZ and its coalfield ambitions into public view.
Living Limpopo and civil society partners mobilised. Our campaign press release set out the urgency to act; our petition and open letter demanded intervention before more damage was done.
Dear South Africa, Amandla.mobi, BirdLife South Africa, WESSA and the Vhembe Biosphere Reserve helped raise awareness and support. By the time of our submission to the Minister on 25 April, 20,432 people had backed the open letter. Thousands participated through the Dear South Africa campaign. We asked for an urgent meeting, enforcement and for the appeal to be upheld.
No meeting. No substantive response. Construction continued.
The deadline disappeared
Makhado’s environmental authorisation dates to 2013. You read that right. It was valid for three years, but in 2016, its commencement deadline was extended to July 2021. In March 2021, MC Mining’s subsidiary, Baobab Mining and Exploration, acknowledged that the authorised activities had not commenced and sought another three years, admitting that it was:
“unlikely that Baobab will be able to commence before the Environmental Authorisation lapses in July 2021”
The Department of Mineral Resources yielded again, and this time, deleted the commencement deadline altogether. Communities and stakeholders appealed on 30 June 2021. Construction began in November 2024 while that appeal remained unresolved.
In April 2025, the appellants submitted supplementary grounds. Seven months later, condonation to submit those grounds was refused – even as the Ministry condoned its own late decision, which was already years overdue.
MC Mining disputes allegations of unlawful operations. The commencement date and legal consequences of construction during the appeal remain contested. The sequence of events does not: The Minister took five years to decide an appeal brought in June 2021. The mine was built while the Minister was deciding whether its environmental authorisation had lapsed in July 2021.
Then Mongabay asked questions
Investigative journalist Elaine Mills investigated the tangled saga for international environmental publication Mongabay. Her enquiries produced a remarkable sequence:
· 30 September: MC Mining reports its coal plant completed and start-up underway.
· 1 October: the Department confirms to Mills that the appeal remains undecided.
· 6 October: Minister Maynier signs the dismissal.
· 14 October: Mongabay publishes its investigation. Living Limpopo receives the decision the following day.
Five years undecided. Five days after the Department’s admission, a decision. Those dates do not prove why the Minister acted when he did. They do demand an explanation.
Makhado Colliery site satellite imagery timelapse. Copyright: Jabu Linden, 2026
The ailing mining company’s latest activities report has subsequently disclosed a temporary operational suspension pending resolution of a funding crisis.
Whatever the next production announcement says, it cannot undo the construction that preceded the decision on whether construction may proceed.
The public were made to wait for a decision. MC Mining did not wait to build.
The water questions remain
Makhado Colliery and the Greater Soutpansberg Projects Groundwater Impact Zone - Area of Aquifer Dewatering. Copyright: Jabu Linden, 2026.
In August 2025, groundwater arsenic contamination was reported to water authorities. In December, the Minister of Water and Sanitation told Parliament that a compliance audit with sampling was scheduled for January 2026. As at 17 October, Living Limpopo held no results and had no confirmation of the promised sampling.
The cause of contamination has not been established. That is a reason to investigate - not a reason to leave questions unanswered. The mine’s water-transfer arrangements also remain disputed.
Makhado is not an isolated project. It sits within a wider coal-and-industry expansion linked to the Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone. Separate application files do not create separate aquifers, landscapes or consequences.
We are preparing a parliamentary activation for early December and a short documentary featuring Makhado, linked to the International Rights of Nature Tribunal judgment and the Tribunal’s planned visit to South Africa. This setback must galvanise action. Watch and share our campaign material; help bring this record into public view.
Join Living Limpopo. Add your voice to a campaign defending water, livelihoods and a different future for this landscape.
For the bigger picture, read Don Pinnock’s latest Daily Maverick coverage:
· Dig first, find water later: Limpopo’s industrial insanity — 29 October
Aerial photograph of Makahdo Colliery site, Feb 2025, shortly after construction had commenced in November 2024 (Living Limpopo)
The price of inaction: Makhado Colliery site by May 2025, after media exposure and public petition served
Please consider a donation. Even the smallest contribution to our war chest helps enormously. You would not believe how far we stretch each rand—to investigate, challenge, document and keep these questions in front of decision-makers.
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You can contact us by sending an email to our campaign coordinator at admin@livinglimpopo.org or message us here
Notice to campaign supporters: This is a public campaign update, not statutory notification or legal advice. Signing the open letter did not make signatories parties to the appeal. Living Limpopo was not an appellant. Any challenge by the appellants is a matter for them and their legal advisers. We are consulting campaign partners about a separate report-back to signatories. Anyone considering legal action should obtain independent advice promptly; applicable time limits may run irrespective of this campaign update.