South Africa is about to create a new Sacrifice Zone for coal and steel in the remote Vhembe region of Limpopo Province.

This week, Living Limpopo together with its partners, All Rise Attorneys for Climate and Environmental Justice and CALS, a human rights organisation based at the University of Witwatersrand, is issuing an urgent call to our members and the public to register as stakeholders in decisions related to the green-lighting of the Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone.

Background

The Vhembe Biosphere Reserve region in the Vhembe District of Limpopo Province possesses some of South Africa’s most unique and pristine natural landscapes. The creation of a 60 Km2 heavy industrial zone in the region known as the Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone threatens to cause severe and irrevocable degradation: The MMSEZ, a joint China-South Africa state-backed industrial mega-project, is ultra-high risk, high-cost and its cumulative impact, not least in driving the exploitation of the Greater Soutpansberg Coalfield, will be catastrophic.

Launch of EIA process for multiple MMSEZ projects

As part of a new thrust to get the MMSEZ off the ground spurred by the 9th Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Summit held in Beijing in September, notice has been served of the launch of a ‘bundled’ Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process for several core projects at the South Site of the MMSEZ – an 8,000 Ha area north of the Soutpansberg Mountains on the Musina and Makhado Local Municipality boundary.

The South African Energy-Metallurgical Zone of the Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone will concentrate on steel production in a ‘connected sequence’ from raw coal to coking coal; power generation; pig iron; ferroalloys and ultimately, 5 Mt/a of steel output. The projects in the bundle of environmental authorisations applications include:

• a10Mt/a coal washery and 3Mt/a coking coal plant

• a 1Mt/a ferrochrome and ferroalloy smelter plant

• a 1,000MW solar PV power plant, which will require clearance of up to 4,000 Ha of indigenous vegetation to meet only part of the power needs of the industrial zone.

View the presentation given by Gudani Consulting at the public meeting held on 13 September and Scoping Report since released here.

The highly-irregular EIA process is being facilitated by Gudani Consulting acting for:

1) EMSEZ/SAEMB, the South African subsidiary of Shenzhen Hoimor Resources, the Chinese operator of the zone, and

2) Kinetic Development, the Chinese coal mining company that has a controlling interest in MC Mining and its portfolio of mining rights in the Greater Soutpansberg Coalfield.

Call for stakeholder registrations

Registrations of Interested and Affected Parties (I&APs) is open until 12 November 2024.

It is critical that there is broad, multi-sectoral representation and robust engagement in this process to ensure that the tactic of splitting a project of gargantuan scale does not succeed in avoiding either cumulative impact assessment or genuine public participation in the decision whether to authorise it. We call on our members and the public to register before the 12 November deadline:

• I&APs can register directly with the appointed Environmental Impact Assessment practitioner,  Gudani Consulting, whose contact details are provided below.

• Alternatively, members of the public can register as I&APs via Living Limpopo’s website here.

As part of a broader legal defence strategy and advocacy for sustainable, nature-based economic development in the Vhembe Biosphere Reserve region, Living Limpopo, together with CALS, a human rights organisation based at the University of Witwatersrand, represented by All Rise  is registered as an I&AP and has submitted initial objections to the procedural irregularities. The public can also register as members of Living Limpopo and be counted among those we represent in preventing the strip-mining of the Vhembe’s future.

You have the right to know and to participate in these decisions whose consequences will reverberate far into the future. Register before the deadline on 12 November to make your voice heard in the decision to purposefully develop large-scale coal-fuelled heavy industry in the Vhembe Biosphere Reserve to drive the exploitation of a new coalfield in South Africa.

It is not too late to stop the sacrifice of the wild heart of Limpopo.

FOLLOW THE LIVING LIMPOPO CAMPAIGN

Contacts:

Gudani Consulting

Setenane Nkopane (Pr.Sci.Nat)

Cell: +2782 - 828 3412

setenane@gudaniconsulting.co.za

www.gudaniconsulting.co.za

www.livinglimpopo.org