PRESS RELEASE: ILLEGAL STRIP-MINING BY CHINESE COAL MINERS EXPOSED IN LIMPOPO BIOSPHERE RESERVE
Press Release 18 March 2025, Limpopo, South Africa - embargoed for public release until 29 March 2025
Illegal strip mining by Chinese coal miners exposed in biosphere reserve - Limpopo Province
A recent investigation has uncovered illegal strip-mining in the Vhembe Biosphere Reserve in Limpopo Province, South Africa linked to the controversial Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone (MMSEZ). The exposé, which aired on current affairs programme Carte Blanche on Sunday 16 March, revealed that MC Mining - whose Chinese parent company, Kinetic Development, is an anchor investor in the MMSEZ, has unlawfully commenced mining operations at Makhado Colliery.
Further investigations have uncovered that large-scale vegetation clearance, soil stockpiling and excavation for the Makhado Colliery began in late 2024 and is proceeding at the site located in the Tshipise area of the Limpopo River Valley despite a pending appeal decision against its environmental authorisation extension in breach of Section 24F of the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA).
MC Mining holds the rights to develop 9 of 10 new open-cast coal mines licensed in the Greater Soutpansberg Coalfield on a pristine area of 107,000 hectares to supply coal to the MMSEZ steel manufacturing mega-project, posing a severe threat to one of South Africa’s most ecologically sensitive landscapes.
MC Mining’s disregard for due process has raised serious governance concerns about the China-South Africa government-backed MMSEZ— and the risk of foreign investors being allowed to violate South Africa’s environmental protection standards in this Chinese operator-controlled, heavy industrial zone being developed under the China-South Africa Framework Agreement on Production Capacity Cooperation and China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
“MC Mining’s contempt for South Africa’s environmental safeguards cannot be ignored when Kinetic Development has openly declared in its application to develop the ferrochrome smelter that the ‘advantages’ of the MMSEZ for China include the opportunity to offshore pollution - to ‘Transfer China's excess steel capacity and reduce China's high energy-consuming pollution’,” says Lauren Liebenberg, Founder of Living Limpopo, a non-profit organisation that campaigns for a coal-free and sustainable future for the Vhembe.
In response to the threat, Living Limpopo, in partnership with Dear South Africa and Amandla Awethu.mobi, is calling on the public to sign an Open Letter addressed to the National Director of Public Prosecutions and the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, demanding immediate action to halt all mining activities and hold MC Mining accountable for ongoing statutory violations.
The coal that lies beneath the baobabs
The UNESCO-designated Vhembe Biosphere Reserve is of great biodiversity and cultural significance, boasting two national parks, an extensive protected areas network and the Mapungubwe UNESCO World Heritage Site and Cultural Landscape. It is a rich biodiversity reservoir and natural carbon sink, with three distinct biomes and 23 vegetation types, eight of which are endemic and found nowhere else in the world. The Blouberg and Soutpansberg mountain ranges, Makuleke Wetlands and the Limpopo River Valley further enrich this extraordinarily diverse environment.
Beyond its natural beauty, the Vhembe Biosphere Reserve is deeply rooted in Venda culture and history, with sacred sites such as Lake Fundudzi, Thathe Vondo Forest and the Dzhata Archaeological Ruins. It is a place where nature and spiritual practices are deeply bound and centuries-old traditions are kept alive through rituals, storytelling, dance, and song.
As part of the Greater Mapungubwe and Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Areas, which spans South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Botswana, the Vhembe Biosphere Reserve plays a crucial role in international conservation efforts.
The Greater Soutpansberg Coalfield is of marginal viability and its exploitation is facing fierce resistance from local communities and industries including farming and tourism, conservationists and environmental and social justice activists. Yet the Limpopo provincial government and the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources (DMPR) are determined to push ahead with the plan to extract what fraction of its estimated 10 billion tons of hard coking and thermal coal resources are recoverable by turning the biosphere into another ‘Sacrifice Zone’ for steel - in defiance of South Africa’s climate, biodiversity and sustainable development commitments and all economic sense.
Over 136,000 hectares of indigenous vegetation in the Vhembe Biosphere Reserve, much of which is classified as Critical Biodiversity Areas, are at risk of being cleared for 10 new open-cast coal mines, multiple industrial developments in the 60 Km2 MMSEZ and inundation for the Musina Dam complex on the Limpopo River. An unknown quantity of land will also be razed for solar power generation plants to greenwash the fossil-fuel driven smelter project.
“If strip-mining continues unchecked, this biodiversity hotspot and its unrivalled potential to sustain a biodiversity economy, will be lost forever to short-term coal profiteers,” adds Liebenberg.
Sign the Open Letter Here: https://livinglimpopo.org/stop-the-illegal-strip-mining-of-the-vhembe
Or here https://dearsouthafrica.co.za/livinglimpopo/
Or here https://awethu.amandla.mobi/petitions/stop-the-illegal-strip-mining-of-the-vhembe-for-coal
Watch a clip from the Carte Blanche exposé here: https://youtu.be/CW_CanP31Mk?si=a785TPZSE3kJuRwl
The show can be watched on DStv Catch Up, MNet, Channel 101 - https://dstv.stream/#/catchup/program/1080694
Graphics can be accessed here
Images can be accessed here
For media enquiries, please contact:
Leanne McCann
Living Limpopo Media Liaison
leanne@livinglimpopo.org
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