Sill, silly me. All these years I have laboured under the illusion that the prime duty of the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs and its minister was to protect our water resources and be the steward of our environment.
Posted on September 26th, 2011
Filed under: Articles, Newspaper and Media | No Comments »
You’ve probably heard of the Tanzanian government’s recent decision to cancel plans for the construction of a new highway that would have bisected the Serengeti National Park, threatening the integrity of the site of one of the world’s largest, most famous and most important annual wildlife migrations. That was great news.
You’re less likely to have heard of another, perhaps less significant, but equally controversial plan to build a new highway on South Africa’s Wild Coast. The bad news: this one looks like it’s going ahead.
Last week, South Africa’s Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, Edna Molewa, gave the go-ahead for the new N2 Wild Coast toll road project which will involve the upgrading of existing smaller roads and building of some 90 kilometers of new road through the Pondoland area. Government believes that the road will help create job opportunities, increase tourism and accelerate investment and development in this rural and largely impoverished region. Significantly, it will also provide for easier access to potential mining prospects along the spectacularly beautiful and relatively untouched coastline.
The fight over this road, which in 2007 was estimated to cost R6.4 billion (about $950 million), has been going on for more than a decade. Support has come largely from the national government level and the South African National Roads Agency. Very vocal opposition has been provided by local communities on the Wild Coast, environmentalists, concerned citizens and even the provincial government of KwaZulu Natal.
The project was shelved in 2004 after it was discovered that the supposedly independent environmental consultants tasked with conducting an environmental impact assessment (EIA) had financial links with the companies hoping to build the new road. Molewa’s recent announcement comes after another EIA gave the green light for the project.
The new EIA acknowledges that there will be a “loss of sensitive habitats” and “faunal impacts with loss of faunal diversity and loss of species of special concern.” Opponents charge that the road will endanger sensitive forests and waterways and threaten the traditional way of life of local communities.
Of particular concern is the new section of road which is slated to cut through and destroy some 16% of a fragile region known as the Pondoland Centre of Endemism which is of special value because of its great biodiversity and the presence of many plant species that are found nowhere else on the planet. It also represents the cultural homeland of the AmaPondo people. This new section of road would include construction of no fewer than nine new high-level bridges across river gorges.
Adversaries of the new road argue that a truly sustainable development path for the region would help to uplift the local population while protecting the unique environment at the same time. They have vowed to fight government’s intention to go ahead with construction in the country’s courts.
Visitors to the Wild Coast have long appreciated it as one of the most beautiful parts of South Africa and one that has remained largely undisturbed by human development and environmental degradation. It would be unforgivable if it was devastated by something as mundane as a road. In the words of one local commentator, Fred Orban, “the surest and quickest way to destroy a world renowned wilderness area is to cut a highway through its heart.”
Source: care2.com/
Posted on August 10th, 2011
Filed under: Newspaper and Media | No Comments »
Community to oppose 90km of road to be built between Ntafufu and Ndwalane, and between Lusikisiki and the Mthamvuna River
COMMUNITIES in the AmaDiba Tribal Administrative area, which succeeded in pressuring Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu to withdraw Wild Coast mining rights, now plan legal action to stop the N2 toll road being built.
Posted on August 2nd, 2011
Filed under: Articles, Newspaper and Media | No Comments »
Sapa
Johannesburg – The construction of the controversial N2 Wild Coast toll will come at a hefty cost, an environmental group warned on Wednesday.
The Wildlife and Environmental Society of South Africa (Wessa) said the construction of the road in the mountainous area would be costly as large bridges would be needed.
Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa this week reportedly approved the construction of the toll following years of opposition against it.
Wessa was one of the organisations that campaigned against it.
The KwaZulu-Natal government and the eThekwini Municipality also vehemently opposed it arguing that its tolls would have a severe impact on motorists’ pockets.
According to Wessa, six toll plazas would be erected along the new road.
Two would be in KwaZulu-Natal and four in the Eastern Cape and that it was the commuters who would foot the bill.
Wessa has also accused Molewa of failing to recognise importance of the biological diversity of the area where the road will be constructed.
The N2 Wild Coast toll road would run through the pristine and unique Pondoland, the organisation said.
Wessa manager Chris Galliers said he hoped Molewa would apply attention to the long standing need for the area to attain some level of formal protection as identified in the National Protected Area Expansion Strategy.
He said they were concerned about the change in the nature and social fabric of the area forever.
“This may very well take the ‘wild’ out of the ‘Wild’ Coast.”
Posted on July 28th, 2011
Filed under: Newspaper and Media | No Comments »
Source: Group writers SA
Publication: Mercury
AFTER nearly 10 years of controversy, Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa has flashed the green light for the construction of the Wild Coast toll road from Durban to East London.
It emerged last night that she has rejected 50 legal appeals against the proposal, |setting the stage for the construction of several new cash-collection points on the N2, including a major toll-plaza near Isipingo used by thousands of Durban commuters.
Molewa side-stepped the thorny question of tolling commuters and local industries in South Durban, arguing that she had no authority to consider the cost and social-economic implications. Her duty was to examine the physical and environmental impacts of the toll road infrastructure, whereas the minister of Transport and the SA National Roads Agency (Sanral) were responsible for setting the toll fees and considering the social and economic ramifications.
Because the decision only came to light yesterday it was not clear whether opponents would challenge her decision in court. However, attorney Cormac Cullinan, who is acting for some of the objectors in Pondoland, said there was a strong possibility of a further legal challenge.
Andrew Layman, chief executive of the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said: “I think there would be a sense of disappointment about this decision because the chamber remains concerned about the detrimental impacts on the economy and on daily commuters who can probably ill-afford extra tolls.”
Consultants
A study by transport consultants Imani prepared for the South Durban Business Coalition in 2009 suggested that 31 percent of the toll fees on the Durban-East London route would be collected at Isipingo alone, whereas only 6 percent of the total capital costs of the project would be spent on upgrading roads in the South Durban basin.
A legal submission prepared by Toyota SA, Illovo Sugar, Umbogintwini Industrial Association and the Southgate Industrial Park also suggested that tolls at Isipingo would push up the cost of doing business in South Durban by as much as R81 million a year.
In response to objections that the toll road was ecologically unsustainable and could wreck plans to create a new protected area in Pondoland, Molewa acknowledged that the SA National Biodiversity Institute and officials in her own department had identified Pondoland as possibly “the last opportunity” to establish a large new coastal protected area.
“The information at my disposal confirms the importance of the biological diversity of (Pondoland). The large numbers of species endemic to this area and the sensitive wetlands and forests it contains render the Pondoland coastline a valuable and vulnerable natural asset which needs formal protection.”
Molewa was also aware that a new road through the area would “fragment this delicate system” but she believed “a balance should be sought between strict preservation on one hand and the promotion of development on the other”.
On concerns that the toll road would set in train a series of other major developments (including mining) which would have a cumulative negative impact on the environment and tourism, she said her department could not be expected to “base decisions on potential future developments, on the information generated by the environmental impact assessment for the proposed road”.
Sanral chief executive Nazir Alli could not be reached for comment.
Posted on July 28th, 2011
Filed under: Articles | No Comments »
Before the turn of this century, studies conducted by Richards Bay Minerals inferred a resource at what became known as the Xolobeni mineral sands project of 83 million tons of mineral sands, including 10 percent of heavy minerals.
Source : www.iol.co.za
Posted on July 22nd, 2011
Filed under: Current Issues, Newspaper and Media | No Comments »
Companies and Intellectual Property Commission records suggest that Xolobeni Empowerment Company (Xolco) co-founders Max Boqwana and Zamile “Madiba” Qunya at some stage shared other business interests.
Source : www.iol.co.za
Posted on July 22nd, 2011
Filed under: Articles, Current Issues, Newspaper and Media | No Comments »
|
STOP
. Mining of the Wild Coast dunes HOW? Calendar Details |
