Please find an attached soundbite by Annerie Weber MP.
The DA demands an investigation into the environmental disaster that killed three tonnes of fish in the Wilge and Klein Ollifants rivers in Mpumalanga after an acid water spillage from the un-rehabilitated Kromdraai Coal Mine in eMalahleni.
The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) must also take immediate action against the responsible officials.
On 16 February 2022, dead fish were noticed in the Wilge- and Klein Olifants rivers, which were then removed and buried to ensure they do not become rotten and contaminate the water further.
It was discovered that a failed concrete seal at one of the mineshafts caused acid drainage water to spill into water resources where the dead fish were discovered. More than 58km of river biodiversity have been destroyed.
According to the Mpumalanga Parks and Tourism Agency (MPTA), this is one of the biggest River ecology disasters regarding the deaths of fish that they have experienced in the past 40 years – 23 indigenous fish species have died from this incident. Fortunately, some of these fish might still be found up and down stream. Experts estimated that it would probably take 15 to 20 years to restore the damaged riverbanks as well as the fish species that perished from this incident.
It seems clear that the mine broke the South African Environmental Laws, and according to the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA), which provides the underlying framework for environmental law, the party responsible for producing the pollution must also be responsible for paying for the damage done to the natural environment.
NEMA also specifies that the costs of remedying pollution, environmental degradation and consequent adverse health effects and of preventing, controlling or minimising further pollution, environmental damage or adverse health effects, must be paid for by those responsible for harming the environment
The DA will submit parliamentary questions regarding why nothing has been done to rehabilitate this mine, and whether the Departments of FFE and Mineral Resources (DMR) were aware of this mine and what steps are going to be taken, if any, to ensure that a reoccurrence of this event never happens again.
The ANC government seems to have a very lax attitude when it comes to protecting South Africa’s natural resources and heritage. Environmental crimes cannot continue to go unpunished and the DA will do all it can to ensure the full might of the law is applied to this incident.