NGOs call for fairer mine law overhaul (Business Report)
Environmental and rights groups said yesterday that separate and unequal environmental rules for mines were “no longer defensible”. The organisations complained that they were being sidelined from early efforts to overhaul mining laws.
The 13 groups, including Lawyers for Human Rights, WWF South Africa and the Endangered Wildlife Trust, said the existing rules gave inadequate time to assess the environmental impacts of mines and imposed penalties “that are so low as to be no disincentive whatsoever for mining companies”.
For example, the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA) set a maximum fine of R500 000 compared with R5 million for similar offences in other environmental legislation. Yesterday, the groups said in a letter to Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu that their offer to make early input on an updated environmental dispensation for mining had “fallen on deaf ears”.
Shabangu is overhauling the MPRDA, and has set a target with Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa of putting in place a regulatory system for environmental management for mines by the middle of next year. Department of Mineral Resources spokesman Bheki Khumalo said the two departments were discussing the issue of environmental management.
But the coalition of 13 environmental and justice NGOs questioned why the input of business and labour had been obtained on amendments to the MPRDA ahead of a public consultation process, while the voices of civil society had not been canvassed. The input from business and labour came via the Mining, Growth, Development and Employment task team.
The environmental groups added that they had developed expertise in developing draft legislation that would have more buy-in from civil society at an early stage. Despite a request for a meeting, the Mineral Resources Department had opted to defer consultation with civil society to a later stage in the legislative development, the groups said.
Khumalo denied this was intended to exclude civil society, describing it as “the way the consultative structures work”. He said the department was committed to public hearings after first taking the amendments to the cabinet. “It was not an attempt to put (business and labour) ahead of the rest of the queue,” he said.
Amendments to the National Environmental Management Act and the MPRDA were passed in Parliament in 2008 to address inadequacies in the MPRDA environmental regulatory regime, but were not put into effect after the mining sector raised concerns.
“The concerns of mining sector stakeholders have not been made public, and despite the Department of Mineral Resources’ view that it should consult stakeholders, it has failed to consult some of the people most affected by the failure to bring the MPRDA Amendment Act into effect, namely communities, civil society organisations and the NGOs that support them,” the environmental groups said. - Business Report
By Ingi Salgado