The award of a controversial licence to Tendele Coal Mining to extend the activities of its Somkhele mine in the Mtubatuba district of KZN has been set aside, reports GroundUp.

Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) Acting Judge Noluntu Bam has ordered that the licence be reconsidered by the Minister of Mineral Resources & Energy.

The Minister has been ordered to re-open an appeal lodged by various community organisations which had been dismissed.

This is the outcome of a court battle which has been going on since November 2018, launched by the Mfolozi Community Environmental Justice Organisation, the Global Environmental Trust, Mining Affected Communities In Action, the Southern Africa Human Rights Defenders Network and ActionAid SA following a failed appeal to the Minister.

The Minister, and other state respondents, did not oppose the organisations’ application. Bam said it had been initially ‘fiercely opposed’ by Tendele.

The company was supported in its opposition by the local Mpukunyoni Traditional Council, a mining forum, and two unions representing the bulk of the workforce.

However, during the hearing, Tendele conceded that it could not defend its position on several issues, including that its public participation process was ‘imperfect’, there were deficiencies in its environmental reports, its specialist studies did not adequately cover the entire proposed mining area and certain environmental impacts had not been assessed at all.

The company said in light of this it intended to abandon most – about 92% – of the mining rights. But the applicants persisted.

They wanted orders reviewing and setting aside three decisions concerning the award of the mining rights and the dismissal of their appeal. They argued that the right should never have been approved in the first place ‘evidenced by the very paperwork Tendele submitted to the department’.

They argued that their constitutional rights to an environment that is not harmful to their health or well-being, and their right not to be deprived of property, had been undermined.

Bam, in her ruling, said Tendele had conceded that although the project had been described in public documents as a 32km squared extension of the mine, the mining right application actually covered 222km squared.

There was also no dispute that its Environmental Management Programme report, while supported by seven expert studies, had not dealt with issues such as air quality, vibration and climate impact.

Other reports were simply outdated, reports GroundUp.

The judge also questioned the reported approval for the licence by the local traditional council.

Full GroundUp report