On the 17th of March 2022, the UNDP announced its endorsement and support of the Musina-Makhafo SEZ, to the unbridled shock of the local and international environmental and social justice activist community opposing the ecocidal and economically ruinous project.

EarthLife Africa and groundWork, represented by the Centre for Environmental Rights, plan legal action against LEDET following its granting of environmental authorisation for the Musina-Makhado SEZ on the 23rd of February.

The Musina-Makhado Special Economic ZoneMail & Guardian (MMSEZ), a pet project of President Cyril Ramaphosa since 2018, was approved on 23 February.

On the 23rd of February 2022, the vampire in the blood bank; LEDET finally approved its own environmentally and economically ruinous mega-project

Letter from the vampire in the blood bank; the Limpopo provincial government granting environmental authorisation for its own economically and environmentally ruinous project.

In a two-hour pitch, the dtic ‘n’ co punted the MM-SEZ as a done-deal, down to the coal-fired power plant.

In South Africa and across the continent, calls for a ‘just energy transition’ are now louder than those concerned with jobs for workers in fossil fuel industries.

The government of the People’s Republic of China has confirmed that it will no longer be funding a new 1 320MW to 3 300MW coal-fired power plant for the controversial planned Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone (MMSEZ), which includes various heavy industries.

This follows the announcement by Chinese Premier Xi Jinping at the UN on 21 September that China would no longer finance new coal power abroad.

Special economic zone will request the government to intervene on funding.

The public purse and natural treasures will pay for the sweeties dangled to tempt foreigners to invest in the new industrial zones.

At a webinar held on Monday, convened by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), conflicting views were expressed in the discussion of the latest report by Dr Munnik, of the Society Work and Politics Institute at Wits University, titled: Water for the EMSEZ mega-project at all costs — a report on the absence of water governance in the Limpopo River Catchment.

A coalition of South African environmental advocacy groups has welcomed a pledge by Chinese President Xi Jinping not to build new coal-fired power stations abroad, saying this will likely halt a proposal to build a Chinese-backed coal power plant in Limpopo.

The fanfare had been carefully calibrated: there was one specific group the Limpopo Economic Development Agency did not directly invite: a loose coalition of developmental activists, affected communities, environmental NGOs and lawyers who make up the MMSEZ interested and affected parties (I&APs).

The findings of a second research report dealing with the water requirements of the proposed Musina Makhado Special Economic Zone (MMSEZ) was recently made available during a virtual media launch on 12 August. The report once again highlights the fact that the MMSEZ developers refuse to acknowledge that just not enough water is available in the area to support a project of this magnitude.

Special economic zone punted by the government seems totally at odds with its own efforts to safeguard steel industry,

Scaling back on the size of the Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone (MMSEZ) and the negative effects it will have on the environment is not good enough, say opponents, who are calling for a new environmental impact assessment (EIA) for site clearance.

The headline, “The Musina-Makhado zone puts people first, says its chief executive”, is to be questioned. If people were put first, the MMSEZ state-owned corporation, along with the Limpopo Economic Development Agency (Leda), would have ensured more inclusive and thorough EIA and public participation processes. Instead, prescribed timelines have not been adhered to, and scant effort appears to have been made to ensure that a broad range of stakeholders is meaningfully informed about the potential environmental impacts.

On 1 September 2020, the draft environmental impact assessment for the R145bn Musina-Makhado SEZ was released for public comment. What followed, given the absolute devastation that the project would visit on the Limpopo River basin, were delays and about-turns that often verged on the unlawful. But on 19 May 2021, the local implementing agents for the China-backed initiative may have crossed the point of no-return — a high court review is almost certain, it now seems, with the law as clear as day.

In 2011, South Africa demonstrated its commitment to sustainable development by hosting the 17th session of the Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the seventh Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (COP17).

On 22 April this year, President Cyril Ramaphosa used the virtual Leaders’ Summit on Climate convened by the United States President Joe Biden to articulate South Africa’s commitment to sustainable development.

Until last week, the scale of the envisaged Musina-Makhado metallurgical zone (MMSEZ) was mind-boggling: an 8 000 hectare dirty industry complex with a 3 300 megawatt (MW) water thirsty coal plant at its centre. Fortunately, criticism from interested and affected parties during and after the public participation process turned the heat on the Limpopo local and provincial governments to rethink the footprint of the special economic zone.