The long-awaited final Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone (MMSEZ) environmental impact assessment (EIA) report was released on 1 September, coinciding with a carefully orchestrated investor conference-webinar roadshow. The fanfare was marketed to send all the “right” signals to potential investors and the “right” audience of more than 1 000 online attendees.
The fanfare had been carefully calibrated: there was one specific group the Limpopo Economic Development Agency did not directly invite: a loose coalition of developmental activists, affected communities, environmental NGOs and lawyers who make up the MMSEZ interested and affected parties (I&APs).
The interested and affected parties have made substantial inputs to the MMSEZ process through the public participation process. Let’s be frank, their comments have been blunt, critical and annoying to both the Limpopo Economic Development Agency and the Limpopo Economic Development and Environmental Agency (Ledet). So the two agencies fell back on that old invite trick that goes back to the schoolyard, just the popular kids with money get to come to your party, not that other critical edgy lot that may ruin your own rather fragile reputation by saying something that might mess with your image.
The coalition of interested and affected parties, including Mining Communities Unite in Action (Macua), Earthlife Africa, the Living Limpopo Coalition Campaign, Save Our Limpopo Valley, the Centre for Economic Rights and the African Centre for Citizenship and Democracy and many community activists were not informed, not invited and not sent the final EIA report.
Curiouser and curiouser, especially when one reads in the final EIA released by the new environmental consultancy agency on 1 September (under the heading “The Way Forward”) that to date: “The PPP [public participation process] has given I&APs an opportunity to assist with the identification of issues and potential impacts. The Final EIAR [EIA report] has incorporated all comments received from I&APs and has been submitted to Ledet for a decision on the proposed development. This executive summary of the Final EIAR has been distributed to all registered I&APs.”
Well, that’s a big whopper right there, dear replacement environmental assessment practitioner Ismael Kgabo Semenya of the newly appointed EnviroXcellence consultancy. The hot (and relevant) gossip on the replacement consultancy is that EnviroXcellence was called on in April because the environmental assessment practitioner, Ronaldo Retief, resigned after being named and shamed at a public participation meeting in Pretoria in late March. Retief was called out on the Limpopo Economic Development Agency’s appallingly managed public participation process —a meeting from which the agency’s Richard Zitha rapidly removed himself while Retief was in the hot seat.
Retief’s public humiliation aside, on behalf of the coalition of interested and affected parties, we would like to point out that at the time of writing (Tuesday 7 September) not one of the coalition groups has received the new environmental impact assessment report, or heard from EnviroXcellence about where to find it. Sometimes our government and their slipstream of outsourced yes-men find inefficiency so convenient.
But never mind us investor party-pooper rejects, let’s move on to the real razzmatazz! The real-life event pulled out all the business big guns: the Industrial Development Corporation, the African Development Bank, the New Development Bank, tand Investment South Africa … plus all the bigwigs from the department of trade, industry and competition and satellite state-owned companies.
