The Minister of Environmental Affairs has partly suspended some instructions to Coal of Africa regarding the Vele coal mine near Mapungubwe.

The suspension of some of the instructions will allow the Australian mining group to utilise the roads that they had constructed, but only for specific purposes.

“A number of other instructions related to rehabilitation of the areas affected by the mine have also been suspended in light of the submission by CoAL of Section 24G applications to rectify the illegal commencement of the activities,” stated Mr Albi Modise, the department’s chief director communications to the Zoutpansberger in an e-mail dated October 8.

The green scorpions issued a compliance notice to Vele Colliery on August 5 to cease certain activities associated with the mine. CoAL was then prohibited “to utilize certain infrastructure linked to the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) activities that it had commenced with illegally.”

After the compliance notice had been served, CoAL objected to the notice and applied to Minister Susan Shabangu for a suspension of the instructions.

“Although the Minister is still considering the objection, a decision has been made in relation to the suspension,” Modise said. CoAL may now use the roads for purposes associated only with water quality monitoring, plant moisture surveys, dust fallout monitoring and routine environmental inspections as required by the EMPR (Environmental Management Programme).

Following the suspension of instructions regarding rehabilitation, CoAL will not be forced to start with immediate rehabilitation of the area. The reason is that CoAL had made a section 24G application. NEMA allows such an application to rectify unauthorized commencement of activities. A section 24G application may cost anything up to R1 million. The National Environmental Management Act requires that application for rectification be subject to an administration fine that may not exceed R1million.

Modise said that they were awaiting certain information from CoAL in relation to the Section 24G applications before the department could process the applications further.

The Department of Environmental Affairs, in a sense, has the future of the coal mine in their hands.

“It is true that this decision could impact on the future operation of the Vele Colliery,” Modise said. The department has to decide on granting the 24G application to rectify activities or not. Should a decision ultimately be made not to rectify activities, then the department would issue a directive to CoAL to rehabilitate certain areas.

“It is premature to pre-empt a decision on the section 24G applications as the nature and extent of environmental impacts still need to be considered. Should such impacts be proven to be substantially detrimental and avoidable, recommencement with the illegally commenced activities is unlikely to be supported,” Modise said.