HOD bends the rules for the Mucina-Makhado Special Economic Zone

Pretoria/ Limpopo – The Mucina-Makhado Special Economic (MMSEZ) zone was called the largest proposed environmentally degrading development in Africa by Professor Lisa Thompson of the University of the Western Cape at a public participation meeting held on Friday 30 April. Yet the Limpopo Department of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism has refused to grant access to the independent reviewer’s report of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) which taxpayers’ money funded. Environmental lawyer Christo Reeders pointed out that it is unlawful for the report not to have been made available for public scrutiny. The environmental assessment practitioner Ronaldo Retief appointed by Delta Built Environment could not answer why LEDET had granted an extension to improve the “final” EIA report until 31 October 2021 rather than issue a negative decision on the development based on the inadequacies and shortcomings of the report submitted on 1 February 2021.
Retief showed the gathering an email sent to head of environmental compliance at LEDET, Victor Mongwe, on 19 April asking for the report to be released. In the email he reminds Mongwe that this request had also been made on 24 March, but no response had been provided by the competent authority LEDET. 
The participants expressed dissatisfaction with the public participation process including successful land claimants being side-lined, the consultant not offering translations, and the documents provided being different to the PowerPoint shown.
Water, air pollution, jobs for locals, and biodiversity destruction were key issues raised. The participants left feeling that the process was flawed, and consultants were being paid to plaster over the cracks. One of the dissatisfied participants was environmental scientist Dr Cathy Dzerefos representing WESSA. She pointed out that the original EIAr had not mentioned mopane worms, an important traditional food occurring in Mopane bushveld. Although Retief indicated that Digby Wells had been commissioned to supplement this inadequacy in the biodiversity study, this would be a flawed study from the outset since the mopane worms would be hidden underground and not visible.