Date | Sept 21, 2016:

A Zuma-linked Indian mining company, Atha-Africa Venture, has a mining right from the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) despite the affected location being a strategic water source area.

The Mabola Protected Environment, situated near Wakkerstroom, has been classified as one of 21 strategic water source areas by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), a government body, and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), in a project supported by the Department of Water and Sanitation and the Department of Environmental Affairs.

It covers an area of critical water and biodiversity importance, not only because it is composed mostly of wetlands, plants and endangered grassland ecosystems that support endangered species, but also because it is a source of three major rivers – the Tugela, the Vaal, and the Pongola – that support a significant number of downstream water users who will be affected if the sources of those rivers are compromised.

“If we are going to grant mining rights for coal mining an areas whose importance is recognised through legislation and otherwise, how are we going to stop coal mining in any of the other protected areas,” says Melissa Fourie, executive director of the Centre for Environmental Rights (CER).

She says strategic water source areas comprise 8% of land that provides more than 50% of South Africa’s freshwater, and therefore cannot fathom how this mining right continues to stand considering the country is currently experiencing the worst drought in 30 years, with a state of drought disaster declared in 8 of 9 provinces, including Mpumalanga.

“It’s really for the government to explain whether it is really serious about this, or if we should all just scrap protected areas now and just allow mining everywhere and destroy our strategic water source areas.”

The DMR has itself admitted to the area’s protected status, saying as much in the human rights commission hearing last week, but the evidence clearly points to the contrary, having granted Atha-Africa’s mining right application in 2014, only 8 months after the area was declared a protected environment.

This Zero Hour report, commissioned by the CER, details the devastating impacts of the continued awarding of mining and exploration rights in an area that is strategically pivotal to the country’s water and food security.

According to the report, only 1.5% of South Africa’s soils are considered to have high agriculture potential, and about 47% of that is found in Mpumalanga. Yet prospecting and mining applications, particularly for coal mining, have increased by over 300% between 2005 and 2010.

Environmental consultants and junior DMR officials warned against the project
Atha-Africa received a license for a coal mine inside the declared protected area in the sensitive Mpumalanga grasslands, despite the company’s own consultants recommending that mining not be allowed at the site.

WSP Environmental, the environmental assessment practitioners for the project, were replaced by EcoPartners after a biodiversity report from environmental consultants Natural Scientific Services (NSS), which was commissioned by WSP, recommended that the area be a no-go area, describing the project as being ‘fatally flawed.’

The NSS’s biodiversity report reads: “This is largely because of the impact of the proposed underground mining on the supply of water to the surface water resources (due to the dewatering activities) and the potential groundwater contamination. These and other aspects of the mining project are in strong conflict with international, national and provincial legislation, policies and guidelines. Most potential impacts of the mining operation had a high overall significance rating, even with mitigation.”

Furthermore, records released as part of the legal action taken by the coalition of civil society and community organisations against the project reveal that the DMR’s own officials recommended that the licence not be approved, but were overruled by senior officials.

Says Fourie: “It took us a long time to get the DMR to disclose the record of the decision to award the mining right. In fact, the minister is yet to confirm that the decision was actually made, but we managed to get it from the director general of the DMR. It was through that record disclosure that we could see the trail of how junior officials at the DMR recommended that the right not be granted, and that it was the regional manager and director general who overruled it.”

The mine project and the Zuma link
Atha-Africa, which is part of the part of the India-based Atha Group, acquired a coal asset called the Yzermyn UG Coal Mining project, which is listed as a greenfields project on the parent company’s website.

The same site states the asset has resources of approximately 100 million tonnes (Mt) based on current drilling data, with the potential to go up to around 205 Mt. It has expected output of 2.26 Mt of export-quality coal per annum over a 30-to-40-year life of mine.

Atha-Africa has no other active mining operations in South Africa and, according to the CIPC, its directors are Gaurav Atha, Vishal Atha, and Morgambary Munsamy.

Atha-Africa lists the Bashubile Trust as its BEE partner which, according to trust deed documents obtained by the amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism include Vincent Gezinhliziyo Zuma, Prince Thabo Mpofu, and Sizwe Christopher Zuma as its trustees.

There is no documented or acknowledgement of a bloodline relation between the two Zumas and South Africa’s president, but this News24 article, published earlier this year, suggests that Sizwe is the president’s son.

As things stand, it would be illegal for Atha-Africa to begin any sort of operational activity. Fourie says the court battle with the DMR over reversing the right does not itself place any automatic interdict on the company that prevents it from beginning operations, but that there is a suspension of environmental authorisation to begin operations that is brought about because the coalition launched an appeal against the environmental MEC in Mpumalanga.

Similarly, when they file their appeal against the granting of a water-use licence to the water tribunal, their water-use authorisation will also be suspended.

(Source: http://www.mineweb.com/)