Last week, a delegation from the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Social and Environmental Compliance Unit travelled to the Vhembe district to meet residents and key stakeholders about the developmental and environmental impacts of the Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone (MMSEZ).
Special economic zones are geographically designated areas set aside for specific economic activities. They are growth engines towards a government’s objectives of industrialisation, regional development and employment creation.
The MMSEZ’s notoriety arises from many complex sources. Perhaps the most obvious problem with it is its developmental footprint in the final environmental authority from the Limpopo department of environment and tourism. The zone has glaring flaws. There is a coal-fired power plant to provide energy for metallurgical extractive industries and a steel plant. These industries already have sustainability question marks, enhanced by the water scarcity of the region and its world heritage biodiversity status.
The UNDP has a memorandum of understanding with this zone, which has raised the ire of a number of environmental organisations and social movements. The Centre for Environmental Rights and the Centre for Applied Legal Studies have provided legal rights-based support on environmental and livelihood issues to affected people. The memorandum is seen as an endorsement of the sustainability of the zone while glossing over its many environmental and livelihood problems.
A flawed process
Interested and affected parties that have followed the evolution of the zone’s deeply flawed environmental impact assessment (EIA) process have raised questions relating to biodiversity and climate change. The major flaws include poor participation processes and missing climate and biodiversity reports. These concerns have fallen on deaf ears at the Limpopo Economic Development Agency. The zone is championed as the developmental salvation of Limpopo and the source of long-term employment creation in a province with the lowest rates in the country.
The UN delegation were prompted into action by written complaints to their unit. The complaints were lodged after an open letter from the UNDP South Africa’s representative, Ayodele Odusola, to those parties who questioned the sustainability endorsement of the memorandum. Odusola, in the letter, states, “… UNDP’s interest in engaging with the zone is part of its efforts to promote socio-economic development that is environmentally and socially sustainable to contribute towards overcoming South Africa’s triple development challenge”.
