A campaign by locals and farming businesses to halt a large opencast mine highlights a far wider conflict over South Africa’s continued addiction to coal

On the horizon are the mountains, verdant rainforest on their well-watered, shaded southern slopes and arid scrub on the dry reverse slopes. Then there is the plain, studded with baobab trees and outcrops. Finally there is the river Limpopo. Beyond is another country: troubled, restive Zimbabwe.

But here in the far north-east of South Africa, there is tension, too. In the Soutpansberg range and on the flat lands beyond, an improbable coalition of local farmers, villagers, big agricultural businessmen and activists are fighting to halt the development of a large opencast mine which, they say, would cause massive harm to the region.

The mine lies 30km north of the small town of Makhado. A South African company hopes it can extract some 5.5m tonnes of coking and heating coal for use locally and for export from a narrow and remote valley. Government officials broadly back the project, which developers argue will bring wealth to both the developing nation and to local people.

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But campaigners fear the Makhado mine will wreak much damage, and that if it goes ahead much larger projects will follow, leading to the loss of irreplaceable cultural and biological resources.

“It will open the door to mining in an area of huge natural, human, economic and cultural significance,” said Wally Schultz, a local farmer and activist.

The row over the mine also touches on a much broader issue in South Africa: energy policy in coming decades.

In recent years, the country has been hit by severe power shortages, leading to rolling outages. Though these have now eased, in part due to renewable energy sources supplementing supply, coal currently provides almost three quarters of South Africa’s energy production and local officials say the fuel is still essential to ensure the developing nation’s energy security for decades to come. So too does Coal of Africa Ltd (CoAL), the company behind the Makhado mine project.

“Within the current South African environment, there are limited alternative solutions for reasonably priced power other than coal ... While it is recognised that the country will reduce its reliance on coal by adopting more sustainable energy sources in the future, it is also recognised that coal can and must remain part of the country’s energy mix,” CoAL said in a statement.

'The world needs energy, coal is energy, and coal is here. But I think we can win this fight' Philé van Zyl, farming director

Many experts dispute this and say that South Africa, which is reviewing a national plan on new power generation from now until 2050, has reached a key “tipping point”.

“There used to be a trade-off between clean and cheap. That’s no longer the case,” said Tobias Bischof-Niemz, head of South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) energy centre.

“We have to decide if we stay in the old business-as-usual world of coal and nuclear, or the new world of renewables. We are now at a tipping point here in South Africa. The cheapest way to create new power here is wind, solar, and what I call flexibility, which includes lots of approaches ranging from natural gas-fired power stations through to demand reduction,” said Bischof-Niemz

South Africa has pledged to lower its carbon emissions by 42% by 2025. Half of these emissions come from the state generating company’s coal-fired power stations.

Two vast new coal-powered power stations are being built – among the biggest in the world – and will need fuel. At present, most of the coal these and other similar installations need comes from the eastern province of Mpumalanga.

‘The cheapest way to create new power is wind and solar,’ said Tobias Bischof-Niemz, head of the energy centre at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). Photograph: PieTer Uys/Courtesy of CSIR

Some experts suggest Limpopo province, and particularly the swathe of land north of the Soutpansberg mountains, could provide an alternative in the future. Another possibility is the nearby Waterberg mountain range further west where other clashes between developers and activists are ongoing.

“As more seams [elsewhere] become depleted, coal-mining companies and the South African government are looking at deposits in the Waterberg and the Soutpansberg as the next logical supply sources,” one specialist South Africa mining website noted recently.

“The large deposits of coal … about to be opened up in the Waterberg and Soutpansberg, combined with [the] government’s drive to diversify the South African coal environment, create ideal conditions for entrepreneurs to enter the coal mining industry.”

There are scores of applications for mining in Limpopo, with hundreds of prospecting licences issued.

However, official estimates suggest that South Africa has reserves of 53bn tonnes of coal, enough for “200 years” at present production rates. Between a quarter and a third of coal mined in the country is now sold overseas. More than half of the exports go to India, which is investing in a huge programme of construction of mines.

The coal in Limpopo also includes a high proportion of fuel that can be used in the metallurgical industry, either locally or by international producers.

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Campaigners believe few benefits will be felt locally. One major concern is water. South Africa has suffered the worst drought for decades in recent years, and Limpopo is already hit by a severe shortage.

“Water is what this whole thing swings on,” said Wally Schultz.

A statement from CoAL explained that as “the quality and quantity of water is a key concern for all stakeholders … the company has partnered with landowners in the area to create a model for coexistence between mining and agriculture” and would also fund research to identify sources of “new” water.

CoAL, which already runs the controversial Vhembe mine on the borders of the Unesco-listed site of Mapungubwe, which contains archaeological evidence of a sophisticated Iron Age trading kingdom in the far north of Limpopo, insists that the new Makhado venture will help local communities overcome a chronic lack of jobs and services.

There will be 1,200 jobs, the company says, and new infrastructure. A training centre has been built and bursaries offered to give local people the skills to fill better paid positions. The mine will have a life of 16 years. CoAL has dismissed local resistance to the mine as the work of a small number of activists with “vested interests”.

“There has been a great deal of excitement around this project with – in the company’s view – the majority of people supporting the project ... It is the company’s view that there are a small number of objectors who are focused on how they specifically can benefit, rather than seeing the project in totality,” the statement said.

One of the most prominent figures fighting the Makhado mine is Philé van Zyl, a director of one of the biggest farming conglomerates in South Africa. His family firm’s farms in northern Limpopo province employ thousands of local workers and supply a substantial proportion of the country’s tomatoes. Van Zyl argues that there are better ways to raise living standards in the region.

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“Clearly our primary concern is not humanitarian. It is agriculture. But there’s a common interest. This area has a combination of humidity and temperature that is a fantastically productive combination. Properly developed the industry could employ five times as many as the mines, and the mines will destroy agriculture,” van Zyl said.



Currently CoAL obtained all the necessary permits for the mining, but cannot proceed until a series of legal appeals made by activists are heard.

Van Zyl is confident. “We have been advised that we can’t fight this but only delay it. The world needs energy, and coal is energy, and coal is here. But I think we can win this fight,” he said.

The village most affected is Mudimeli, which lies in the centre of the valley where the mine will be dug.

The community was forced off better land further south by the racist Apartheid regime decades ago. A slow breakdown of traditional authorities since – a consequence of conflict, forced displacement and social change – has led to splits within the community. As with other similar cases elsewhere in South Africa, this has led to bitter conflict over the mine.

Mudimeli is poor, even by local standards. Thin cattle graze scrub on the dry communal pastures. Though some villagers have earned enough from jobs in distant cities to build brick homes, many live without sanitation or running water.

“A recent socio-economic assessment conducted by CoAL revealed that more than 30% of [local] communities do not have access to a standpipe water connection, and more than 20% have no schooling at all. Through the mine’s socio-economic development model … the project will contribute to skills development, increased economic activity and opportunity, to infrastructure development and the funding of local municipalities,” the company said in a statement.

Albert Radebe, a 63-year-old former policemen, said that he and other villagers would gladly accept a proper relocation package from the mine developers if one was offered, but that CoAL was just “beating about the bush”.

“We are worried for our village if we stay and the mine goes ahead; we are worried for our people’s health, safety, for our water and our homes. But we are worried for our future without jobs or development too. For the moment we have no answers,” Radebe said.