The full report can be read on the website, here

… and is also quoted below:

A businessman involved in a controversial bid to mine tungsten in an environmentally sensitive area of the Cape’s west coast has close personal ties with the mineral resources department official who was responsible for processing the mineral prospecting rights at the time, the Mail & Guardian has learned.

Phemelo Sehunelo, the founder of controversial empowerment mining vehicle Imperial Crown Trading 289 (ICT), confirmed that Duduzile Kunene, the department official, is his girlfriend, Business Day reported on Thursday.

The newspaper speculated that the relationship between the two might explain how ICT managed to obtain the mineral rights applications of rival bidder Kumba for a 21.4% stake in the Sishen Mine.

ICT subsequently blindsided Kumba’s application and received the prospecting rights from the department. Kumba is now contesting the allocation of the rights in court.

In a new development that raises further questions about the integrity of the department’s mineral prospecting rights process the M&G can reveal that Kunene was the department’s acting regional manager in the Western Cape from February 2009 to February 2010 — exactly the period during which a company linked to Sehunelo, Bongani Minerals, applied for mineral prospecting rights in the environmentally sensitive Moutonshoek Valley.

Such rights applications are handled by the department’s regional office and Kunene’s responsibilities would have included receiving and processing the community’s objections to the proposed mine.

Outraged objections
As early as 2006 Sehunelo represented Bongani Minerals at public meetings held to deal with the outraged objections of Moutonshoek locals to the company’s mining plans there, according to a May 2009 report in Noseweek.

It is unclear whether Kunene ever declared her relationship to Sehunelo and, indirectly, to Bongani Minerals. This week she declined to comment, but department spokesperson Bheki Khumalo said the department did not award mining rights to Bongani Minerals in 2009 and withdrew the mineral right completely because of environmental concerns.

“As to whether Kunene’s handling and processing of Bongani Minerals’s prospecting right was ethical or not, you will have to put those questions in writing,” Khumalo said on Thursday.

According to Business Day Sehunelo and Kunene co-own a house in Eldoraigne, Pretoria.

“Close personal relationship”
Sehunelo admitted, through his lawyer Ronnie Mendelow, that he and Kunene enjoy an “ongoing close personal relationship” but denied that either of them had any access to the decision-making process in the department with regard to mineral rights.

But Kunene also has a direct link to an official involved in the mineral rights application process. The same Business Day report revealed that she has been in business with a colleague in the department, Thozama Basi, through a close corporation called 10 Miles 8182 Investments, which was registered in 2006.

Basi confirmed in a supporting affidavit appended to ICT’s legal documents in the dispute with Kumba that she received ICT’s application for mineral rights in 2010.

Mendelow said Kunene and Basi had lost contact when Kunene left the department’s Kimberley office, where Basi worked, in 2006, and added that the close corporation had never traded and had been deregistered.

Read the full report on the website, here

The Mail & Guardian newspaper also reported on the matter, saying that the “dramatic raids in which the Hawks seized evidence from mining company Imperial Crown Trading (ICT), the department of mineral resources and the state attorney’s office may affect people close to both President Jacob Zuma and his deputy, Kgalema Motlanthe”. “Both Jagdish Parekh, a top lieutenant of Zuma benefactors the Gupta family, and Gugu Mtshali, Motlanthe’s partner, are among people of interest to the investigation, according to the search warrants used in the raids. Parekh and Mtshali are shareholders in ICT

Please read the full report here

Summary of current events

• Apparently Bongani Minerals was awarded a Prospecting Right in the Verlorenvlei catchment on 1 July 2011 – landowners have received letters from Bongani and Withers Environmental.

• A Prospecting Right stamped by the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) and a valid EMP have yet to be seen – legal counsel Adv Martin Coetzee has requested these from both the DMR and Withers.
• Adv Martin Coetzee – on behalf of landowners and the Verlorenvlie Coalition – has requested Reasons for awarding the PR from the DMR.
• Adv Martin Coetzee will also lodge an appeal against the granting of the prospecting right.
• If necessary we will proceed to a judicial review.
• The Coalition is not convinced that the DMR has in fact engaged sufficiently with the objections made during the application to prospect.

Our Bill of Rights

We have enshrined within our South African Constitution, a Bill of Rights which clearly states:

“Environment

24         Everyone has the right –

(a)           to an environment which is not harmful to their health or well-being; and

(b)           to have the environment protected for the benefit of present and future generations, through reasonable legislative measures that-

(i)            prevent pollution and ecological degradation,

(ii)           promote conservation; and

(iii)          secure ecologically sustainable development and use of natural resources while promoting justifiable economic and social development.”

When the potential for irretrievable environmental degradation has been so clearly spelled out, the fragile nature of the aquifers which underlie the Moutonshoek Valley has been noted and an area of 4000 square kilometers would be placed at such high and unacceptable risk, it is difficult to fathom the rationale behind this decision.

Our country does not have water or arable land to spare; if we are unable to see the incontrovertible value of these primary supporters and sustainers of life we have arrived at a sad and sorry point in our history

Now is the time that we the people overtly demand that our government conforms to the Bill of Rights and that water and arable land must take precedence over minerals.

The contribution you can make to our cause

• Any information which can underpin our case will be very useful.
• For example, information about the people who live in the Verlorenvallei, their business enterprises, community initiatives, details of farming activities from the Piket-bo-berg to Elands Bay.
• Write letters to the press.
• Write to the Department of Mineral Resources:

Mr S Mapakane

The Regional Manager

Mineral Regulation and Administration: Western Cape

Department of Minerals and Energy

Private Bag X9

Rogge Bay 8012

Per fax: 021 427 1046

• Join the Coalition and get your friends to join.
• Use all available social networks to spread the message.
• Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Please download letters to the DMR and Bongani Minerals here.

Thank you and all strength from the Verlorenvlei Coalition

Selling our environment downstream – who really benefits?

Right to prospect apparently granted

On 1 July 2011 the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) apparently granted Bongani Minerals a right to prospect for tungsten in the Moutonshoek Valley, the major catchment of the Verlorenvlei, a RAMSAR site (yet unprotected).

“We don’t even know if this is true,” said Dr Bennie van der Merwe, Chairperson of the Verlorenvlei Coalition.

Verlorenvlei Coalition comments

The Verlorenvlei Coalition stated that the Department has made a grave error in awarding the licence to Bongani Minerals, a company which in the interim has been intimately linked to officials within the DMR.

Appeal process

Landowners and the Verlorenvlei Coalition will now lodge an appeal against the prospecting approval with the Minister, Ms Susan Shabangu.

Unviable mining process will endanger ground and surface water

The disputed mineral deposit, Riviera Tungsten, is a belt of low grade and widely dispersed tungsten ore in the Moutonshoek Valley. Mining the ore would pose a serious threat to precious water resources, as it would require blasting through the Krom Antonies River on the surface and two vital, fragile aquifers.

Verlorenvlei Coalition denied access to RMDEC

The Verlorenvlei Coalition was denied the opportunity to also present its objections (as supplied to the DMR) to a RMDEC committee – made up of officials from Water Affairs, Agriculture and Cape Nature and chaired by the Regional Manager of the DMR – which could inform the final recommendation to the Minister. Included would have been respected mining geologist and Coalition member Dr Herman Grütter’s findings as to the lack of financial and geological viability of prospecting (and mining) Riviera Tungsten.

2009 application to mine withdrawn due to environmental concerns

In May this year Mr Bheki Khumalo, DMR spokesperson, went on record saying the DMR in 2009 withdrew the mineral rights [to mine the ore deposit and brought by the same applicant] ‘due to environmental concerns’.

When applications were lodged to prospect in the Cape Winelands, Former Director General of the DMR, Adv Sandile Nogxina, said an application to mine land under agricultural production would never be granted as the government had to balance the interests of the exploitation of mineral resources with food security.

The granting of this prospecting licence is in flagrant disregard for this policy stance.

Irregular procedures

In 2010 the Regional Manager of the DMR in the Western Cape, Mr Sivuyile Mpakane, attempted to convene a meeting between Bongani Minerals and the affected landowners to discuss ‘the way forward’ in terms of ‘recommendations for a revised prospecting plan’.  As the outcome of the application had not at that stage been finalised this looked like a thinly veiled attempt to push through the application.

Access to the minutes of a RMDEC meeting held on 28 July 2010 to discuss the terms of this application have been denied to landowners and the Verlorenvlei Coalition and the Centre for Environmental Rights (CER).

Application history

In 2005 Bongani Mineral’s first application to prospect was refused on grounds of potential for pollution. In 2006 Bongani again brought an application to prospect – the licence was granted but was challenged by a judicial review brought on procedural grounds. This right lapsed before the review could go ahead but not before Bongani Minerals lodged a premature mining right application in 2009, based on the technicality that they still owned the prospecting right for Riviera Tungsten.

The acting Regional Manager who presided over this application at the time, Ms Duduzile Sibongile Kunene, was the girlfriend of one of the directors of Bongani Minerals, Mr Phemelo Sehunelo.

A business involved in a controversial bid to mine tungsten in an environmentally sensitive area of the Cape’s west coast has close personal ties with the mineral resources department official who was responsible for processing the mineral prospecting rights at the time, the Mail & Guardian has learned.

To view the full article, please click on the image. To download the article in PDF format, click here.

Grey heron on Verlorenvlei

Decades after conservationists called for the Verlorenvlei near Elands Bay on South Africa’s West Coast to be afforded formal conservation protection to preserve its biodiversity, this Ramsar site is still under threat. A local authority, Bergriver Municipality, has now taken action which could turn the years of environmental neglect around.

Twenty-five years ago conservationists called for private individuals, private enterprise, and relevant official bodies to ensure that Verlorenvlei and its multiple resources are given formal conservation status protection as soon as possible.

This was in response to the first full-scale study of the wetland system which was published by the CSIR in 1986. The report quotes Prof. John Parkington, who points out that archaeological artefacts suggest that humans have been in the Verlorenvlei area, more or less continuously, for more than 100 000 years.   With few situations in sub-Saharan Africa where the potential for prehistoric reconstruction over such a period is so promising, and no other locality along the Western Cape coast with such potential, he states that it is imperative the promise is not squandered by the lack of conservation measures.

Fresh water is the biggest concern

Now, a quarter of a century later, the Verlorenvlei is decidedly under threat. Its unique archaeological treasures, its populations of fish, birds, animals and plants and its function as water purification filter and breeding ground for a significant number of species, are battling the impacts which human populations bring.

Perhaps more significantly, the Vlei is incontrovertibly linked to the Sandveld’s complex network of aquifers. Consequently, the environmental neglect of the Vlei is also posing a hazard to the availability of potable water.  Experts in freshwater studies have been expressing concern about the quality and quantity of water in Verlorenvlei since the first full-scale study of the Verlorenvlei estuary was published in 1986.

Despite its status as an internationally recognised Ramsar wetland, it is an anomaly that this recognition of its significance as a biodiversity hotspot still affords it no formal legal conservation status under South African law.

No mining in sensitive areas

For the Verlorenvlei Coalition, recent inappropriate mining applications and grants, such as the threat of a tungsten and rare earths mine in the Moutonshoek Valley upstream of the Verlorenvlei and the mining licence granted for the Vele Coal Mine near Mapungubwe, have highlighted shortcomings in mining legislation and its application, as well as a lack of development planning at the regional level.

The solution would be to place a moratorium on mining in ecologically sensitive areas and for government to be proactive in defining and identifying such areas rather than leave decision making to officials on an ad hoc basis. At the very least, the Coalition seeks an embargo on mining in the Moutonshoek catchment area of the Verlorenvlei: considering that mining is an activity which would immediately suspend the Vlei’s status as a Ramsar site, leaving aside the consequences of volatile chemicals on the loose in ground and surface water within the catchment area.

Bergriver Municipality takes action – Local Action for Biodiversity

Verlorenvlei looking towards Piketberg

Although there are no land-use planning frameworks and policies in place yet to stop the environmental degradation of Verlorenvlei, a local government authority has made a commitment which could finally save the estuary! In 2009 the Bergriver Municipality, which manages the catchment area of the Vlei, became the first B-grade municipality in South Africa to become a member of the Local Action for Biodiversity (LAB) programme. This is a global urban biodiversity initiative launched by ICLEI (Local Governments for Sustainability) in partnership with the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature).

In practical terms, this programme affords local governments the opportunity to improve the management of their resource biodiversity, thereby improving delivery of basic services, quality of life and sustainable development.

One of the key methods whereby LAB builds local government capacity is through workshopping between LAB participants and environmental practitioners, who come together to discuss everyday experiences, challenges, successes and ideas, and adding technical advice to find workable solutions. This year the Bergriver Municipality will host such a workshop for approximately 80 delegates from municipalities and environmental experts from all over the world from 31 January to 3 February.

Included in the programme of events is a site visit to the Verlorenvlei on World Wetland Day (2 February 2011). More significantly, the morning’s LAB process will focus on the Vlei and its catchment area as a Conflict of Use case study and solutions to the current impasse (ecology: farming: mining) will actively be sought in terms of the LAB deliverables.

It is hoped that this time the opportunity will not be missed to turn words into actions – that the Verlorenvlei will at last receive the legal environmental protection that it deserves in order for the Bergriver Municipality to wisely manage our resources for a sustainable future.

Source: CSIR Estuaries of the Cape, Part II Synopses of available information on individual systems, Report No 32 Verlorenvlei (CW 13) by S A Sinclair, S B Lane and J R Grindley (Stellenbosch December 1986)

For more information about ICLEI, LAB and the workshop, contact Leanne Raymond

Coordinator: Marketing & Communications

Local Action for Biodiversity (LAB)

ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability

Tel: +27 21 487-2772
or mobile:  +27 82 328 4972

Fax: +27 21 424 9313

Email: leanne.raymond@iclei.org

Website: www.iclei.org/lab

Pelicans at sunset ©Felicity Strange

Artists in Piketberg are joining hands to create awareness of the beautiful and ecologically sensitive Verlorenvlei wetland, a RAMSAR-listed site that runs all the way from the Piketberg mountain range to Elands Bay on the West Coast. This important freshwater source, rich in bird, animal, and plant life (including many rare and threatened species), is in danger of contamination by proposed mining operations upstream in the Moutonshoek Valley.

On 29 October at 19:00 the AntheA Delmotte gallery will be opening a group exhibition called “Portraying the beauty of Verlorenvlei”.

In addition, various supporting galleries – including the Everard Read Galleries in Cape Town and Johannesburg and Knysna Fine Art, and iArt – will sell works donated by established artists in support of protecting this important wetland ecosystem. These works will be on show along with an informative write-up about the Verlorenvlei and a petition against mining in the Verlorenvlei catchment area. Proceeds of these sales will go to the Verlorenvlei Coalition and the Friends of the Verlorenvlei, who work to promote sustainable development in the area and protect its biodiversity.

Piketberg – a scenic small town – is home to a very big art community of whom some are well known both locally and internationally. On 30 and 31 October the streets of Piketberg will come to life with various local artists opening their studios to the public: well-known names like Johann Louw, Sandra Hanekom, Clare Menck, MURG, and Anthea Delmotte. Some of the art schools in Piketberg will also host group shows of students’ work. Invited artists are Madelein Marincovitz and Brahm van Zyl. Artists from elsewhere will also show at various venues in and around Piketberg. Maps will be supplied and markers around town will show the way to the various open studios.
Saturday morning there is also an organic market on Piket-bo-berg with an adjacent group show.

For more information contact AntheA Delmotte at 0732817273 or anthea@lantic.net.
For more information about the open studios contact Clare Menck at 0832250059 or claremenck@patat.co.za.

DONATIONS
We still require funding to make prints and frame donated artworks.

Please contact AntheA Delmotte at 0732817273 or anthea@lantic.net if you are able to assist. Or make a donation directly to the Verlorenvlei Coalition.
Bank details:
Krom Antonie Bewarea, Standard Bank, Branch no: 050411 Account no: 252928466

The meeting was finally held on 28 July 2010. The Verlorenvlei Coalition were not allowed to make submissions, despite a mammoth task in preparing a wonderful Powerpoint Presentation and repeated appeals to the DMR to present our objections. Very disappointing.

It was assumed that the RMDEC meeting would then make a recommendation to the Minister. We were awaiting the outcome and were very confident of a favourable result, given the fact that the Bongani Application was fatally flawed, that the application was very similar to the recent Winelands Tin Prospecting Application that was set aside by the Director General of the DMR as being entirely inappropriate in a high intensity farming area, recent
positive legal Judgements that were relevant to our cause and the Minister of the DMR`s moratorium on further PR and MR applications to investigate the 26 000 applications since 2004 for irregularities.

IRREGULAR PROCEDURE

Instead the Western Cape DMR “invited” the four landowners in the Application area to a meeting with Bongani on 6 October to “discuss the Prospecting plan revision” and “the way forward”. This meeting would be chaired by the Western Cape Regional Manager, Mr Sivuyile Mpakane (see ‘Meeting invitation’ document). This seems very sinister and looks like a thinly veiled attempt by the DMR and Bongani to cut some deal with the landowners to sell the VC and the other thousands of objectors downstream.

ABOUT TURN

However, after intervention from legal counsel representing some of the landowners, the meeting was mysteriously cancelled and the DMR professed their independence as regulator (see ‘Meeting cancelled’ document).

PLEASE familiarise yourselves with the contents of the VC and other objections on this website and prepare for further activities should this breach of procedure by the DMR and Bongani take another unprecedented turn. It looks like we have to gear ourselves for massive resistance.

Relevant downloadable documents:

• Meeting Invitation (152)
• Meeting Cancellation (130)

• Comment on Draft EMP by geologist Dr Herman Grutter
• Verlorenvlei Coalition Comment on Draft EMP
• Landowner Moutonshoek Investments legal submission on Draft EMP
• Landowner Namaquasfontein comment on Draft EMP
• Comment on Draft EMP by geologist Dr MF Winter
• Verlorenvlei Coalition Comment on Draft EMP financial provision

Proposed prospecting area showing drainage lines and planned boreholes. Click on image to view larger version.

The Verlorenvlei Coalition has been dedicated in their resistance to the third prospecting application in the Verlorenvlei catchment area, made by Bongani Minerals earlier this year. Thank you to everyone who submitted their objection to the application and who commented on our website.

The Department of Mineral Resources apparently received hundreds of formal objections. There was a long waiting period when the relevant commenting authorities reviewed our objections, culminating in a Regional Mining Development and Environmental Committee meeting (RMDEC), which was finally held on 28 July 2010.

Based on the application, the objections and the presentations made at this meeting, the Western Cape Regional Manager of the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) has apparently now made his recommendation to the national office of the DMR, which is still in a position to overrule such recommendation. We do not yet know what the regional manager’s recommendations are. Despite our repeated requests to present our objections at the RMDEC meeting, the RMDEC secretariat elected not to allow either the applicant (BonganiMinerals) or the objector(s), which include the Verlorenvlei Coalition, to present their submissions.

Find here two downloadable comments to the Environmental Management Plan (EMP) from the Verlorenvlei Coalition (one relating mainly to financial provision), with supporting documents from two affected landowners and two senior geologists.

• Comment on Draft EMP by geologist Dr Herman Grutter

• Verlorenvlei Coalition Comment on Draft EMP

• Landowner Moutonshoek Investments legal submission on Draft EMP

• Landowner Namaquasfontein comment on Draft EMP

• Comment on Draft EMP by geologist Dr MF Winter

• Verlorenvlei Coalition Comment on Draft EMP financial provision

The Mining Right application in the Moutonshoek Valley has been withdrawn and Bongani Minerals has instead lodged a Prospecting Right application with the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR). Please see the background information document (BID) below.

We urge members to fill in the forms below to REGISTER directly with Withers Environmental Consultants (WEC) as I&APs by 26 April 2010 and to attend the public meeting on 28 April 2010 in thousands.

We hope that our members and supporters from other interest groups will FLOOD the DMR with objections by the thousands.

• DOWNLOAD: Objection Form (559)
• DOWNLOAD: BID - 9 April 2010 (452)
• DOWNLOAD: BID - 12 April 2010 (283)
• DOWNLOAD: 1190-PRA Announcement-FGM letter_NGOs and CBOs.pdf (237)

You can also email your objections to:

The Regional Manager | Department of Mineral Resources
Attention: Ms Sibongile Kunene – email:  duduzile.kunene@dme.gov.za
and cc Mr Jan Briers
email:  jan.briers@dme.gov.za

The reference is:
WC30/5/1/1/2/434PR
A/2010/03/26/001

AND
Withers Environmental Consultants – Attention : Mari de Villiers and Elize le Roux
E-mail:  info@withersenviro.co.za

Please remember that a Prospecting Right (PR) application is different from a Mining Right (MR) application, and objections are two-fold:

1.1                   objections to prospecting because prospecting itself (drilling, etc) is bad for agricultural operations, employment, the environment, the community, property prices, etc. An argument can be made for the current sense of place, which is rural, and is very likely to be significantly impaired by prospecting activities.
Geological and mining specialists’ opinion is that likely impacts of invasive methods of prospecting include: noise, air pollution caused by dust, possibly contamination of surface and ground water, the excavation of soil and the generation and storage of solid waste, and the possible degradation of natural vegetation, the cumulative effect of which is likely significantly to impact on the receiving environment. The application proposes a prospecting time frame of 5 years with invasive drilling processes spread over 2 years! They intend to ‘develop 150 drilling sites’, with all the concomitant infrastructure, e.g. drilling rigs, of which as many as 4 will be in place on the affected farms at one time. These invasive processes will render at least two affected farms inoperable, with an immediate loss of 320 jobs, mostly women workers.
Legal opinion is that both the principles of NEMA and, potentially, some of the listed activities under NEMA are relevant to the prospecting application.  In addition there are probably other environmental legal requirements which must be met before prospecting can lawfully commence.  These may include rezoning under LUPO, the granting of a waste management licence under the Waste Act and the undertaking of a Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA) under the National Heritage Resources Act (NHRA).

1.2       objections to prospecting because the intended outcome, mining, would be bad for agricultural operations, employment, the environment, the community, property prices, etc.

Importantly, a Prospecting Right application does not entail an Environmental Impact Assessment  (EIA) but the application does have to submit an Environmental Management Programme (EMP) for the prospecting.

Opportunities to participate and comment

Public meetings:
22 April – Focus group meeting (CBO and NGO representatives) in the Committee Room of the Centre for the Book, Victoria Rd, Cape Town CBD.
28 April – Public Open Day at Piketberg Public Library

Official closing dates for comment directly to the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR):
30 April 2010 for comment on the Prospecting Right (PR) application
30 May 2010 for comments to the Environmental Management Plan (EMP) submitted with the PR

However, for Withers Environmental Consultants (WEC) to take cognisance of objections and to include these in their primary submission to the DMR, please register with WEC and comment by:

26 April 2010 for comment to the Prospecting Right application
18 May 2010 for comments on the Environmental Management Plan (EMP)

The Draft Prospecting EMP should be available for I&AP comment from Monday, 19 April 2010 to Tuesday, 18 May 2010 at the following publically accessible places:

• National Library, Queen Victoria Street, Cape Town;
• Piketberg Public Library;
• Elandsbaai Hotel; and the
• Karookop School Office.

The document will also be available on the following website: www.withersenviro.co.za.

Dismissal of the recent Winelands prospecting right application

In response to the recent Winelands prospecting right application by government-owned African Exploration Mining and Finance Corporation, Advocate Sandile Nogxina – director general of the Department of Mineral Resources – went on record saying that an application to mine land under agricultural production would never be granted as the government had to balance the interests of the exploitation of mineral resources with food security. In his words:

“Land use has to cater for both. The land is being used for food security and there is no way we can interfere with that. We are a responsible government after all.”

“Definitely the application is not going anywhere, as, if mining went ahead, we would have to expropriate those farms and the operations. … They did not know that there were vineyards there when they made the application — they just used a geological map.”

We expect that the department will be equally responsible about the current farming activities in the Moutonshoek Valley and the value of the Krom Antonies River water catchment upstream from the sensitive Verlorenvlei wetland.

We thank you for your support!