North Gauteng High Court

Sables 'bring red meat threat' - 28 January
The red meat industry is bristling at the threat of a possible outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease after the department of agriculture approved the import of antelope from Zambia. The Red Meat Forum (RMF) has applied for an urgent court interdict to prevent 153 Zambian sable antelope from entering the country under a protocol which was passed in December. The protocol was published in the Government Gazette on December 22 2009. - Fin24 website
Keyphrase :
Animal Diseases Act

Court halts sable imports - 1 February
The Red Meat Forum has successfully stalled the import of Zambian sable into South Africa until the risk of an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease has been ruled out. The North Gauteng High Court on Friday ruled against the legitimacy of a permit to allow the 153 antelope into the country. The court ruled that the permit can only be granted once a full risk analysis in terms of the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) has been performed. - Fin24 website

Twenty of import-row antelope die in pens - 5 February
Twenty of the prize Zambian sable that were due to be imported into SA have died in their quarantine pens at the Lusaka National Park due to heavy rains and their inability to move to higher ground. The sable were due to be airfreighted to SA by February 16 before a court challenge blocked the importation until health regulations, and the requirements for public comment on these, were met . - Business Day website

South Africa

Environment

Business warns on SA climate promises - 26 January
Business is concerned that SA's pledge to reduce emissions growth by 34% by 2020 and 42% by 2025 has been made without proper consultation with industry, which will bear the brunt of meeting the ambitious commitment. But yesterday Laurraine Lotter of Business Unity SA (Busa) said business was concerned SA would make a commitment that might in future be legally binding, without understanding what it means. "It is likely that for the first 10 years at least, the burden of reduction would fall on the private sector", she said. SA's pledge was based on scenarios developed two years ago, which informed its position at the UN climate talks in Copenhagen last month. - Business Day website

SA's PBMR nuclear reactor project could be dead in three months - 28 January
Trade union Solidarity is affirming that the South African government will not provide any further funding for the country'’s Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) project. According to figures from the National Treasury, cited by the union, from the 2005/2006 financial year (FY) to the 2008/2009 FY the government has provided funding of R4,461-billion for the PBMR. As a result of the government’s refusal to spend any more money on the project, the PBMR company (which is responsible for developing the PBMR technology) will run out of money in April. According to the union, PBMR has already had to cut its expenditure by R40-million a month and has suspended the renting of an office block, which had housed 200 of its 780 employees. In addition, the company has informed most of its fixed-term contractors that their contracts will be cancelled. - Creamer Media's Engineering News website

Prime property at risk as sea levels rise - 3 February
Sixteen prime coast areas, including Milnerton Harbour, Green Point, Sea Point, Camps Bay and the entire Strand beachfront are at "high risk" from rising sea levels, says the City of Cape Town's latest sea-level risk assessment. If sea levels rise, as they are predicted to do in the next 25 years, billions of rands of coastal infrastructure will be damaged. In a report submitted on Tuesday to the planning and environment portfolio committee, Darryl Colenbrander of strategy and planning, said the sea level risks can no longer be viewed as something to be addressed in the future but must be considered as a priority" in city planning. - IOL website

Land Affairs

Civil servant fined for illegal St Lucia building - 5 February
A Pretoria civil servant has been fined R15 000 and ordered to demolish a house he built illegally in the St Lucia Wetland Park in Zululand. The Pietermaritzburg regional court also ordered Jacobus Serfontein to restore the garden to its original pristine condition. Serfontein was convicted yesterday of erecting the house on a world heritage site without authority ; entering the site or living there without authority ; and establishing a French drain and water sewerage system and gardening without approval. He had pleaded guilty. He was fined R100 000, of which R85 000 was conditionally suspended, and sentenced to five years' imprisonment both conditionally suspended in totality. - Sowetan website

Minerals and Energy

Anti-mining group appeals Xolobeni mining right - 1 February
The Minerals and Mining Development board, which advises the Minister of Mineral Resources, would next week hear oral submissions from interested parties appealing a decision to grant Transworld Energy Minerals (TEM) a licence to mine heavy minerals from the dunes near Xolobeni on the Wild Coast. The board would hear submissions on February 8, 9 and 10, the Grahamstown-based Legal Resources Centre (LRC) said. - Creamer Media's Mining Weekly website

Legal body slates granting of Wild Coast mining licence - 4 February
The granting of a licence to Australian mining group Transworld Energy Minerals (TEM) to mine heavy minerals on the pristine dunes at Xolobeni, on the Wild Coast, was "clearly improper and ought to be withdrawn". This is according to the Legal Resources Centre (LRC), acting for the AmaDiba Trust which comprises members of the affected communities at Xolobeni. The appeal documents claim that the Minerals and Energy Department failed to co-operate with other departments as required, blatantly ignored objections to the proposed mining project and failed entirely to implement its own statutory requirements for the issuing of mining licences. - Weekend Post website

Area would not recover, says expert - 4 February
The proposed heavy minerals mining project at Xolobeni on the Wild Coast was located in one of the "most environmentally sensitive habitats" ever investigated for mining in the country, says soil fertility expert Jan Meyer. Meyer points out that in a number of countries, including Australia, heavy mineral mining operations on sand dunes had been closed because of the "severe and permanent" environmental impact. - Dispatch Online website 

De Beers opens Diamond Route in South Africa - 4 February
The Diamond Route, which makes 250 000 ha of cross-regional private conservation land owned by diamond-miner De Beers and the Oppenheimer family accessible to tourists, was "open for business", said Diamond Route chairperson Rob Smart at the launch of the initiative. The Diamond Route is a partnership in environmental conservation and tourism and includes insight into South Africa's cultural, historical, and diamond-mining features. It links nine sites across South Africa and is made up of property owned by both De Beers and the Oppenheimer family. The empowerment partner is Ponahalo Holdings. - Creamer Media's Mining Weekly website

Municipal Management and Procedure

eThekwini

Landfill gas-to-electricity project launched - 28 January
A landmark project that converts gas from household waste into electricity has been officially launched in Durban. A first for Africa, the project will produce enough electricity for thousands of medium-income homes. It will also inject tens of millions of Rands into the city coffers through the sale of electricity and certified emission reduction credits, also known as carbon credits. But the real winner will be the environment. Millions of cubic metres of greenhouse gases that would otherwise have escaped into the atmosphere each year, contributing to global warming, will now be converted into clean electricity. - BuaNews Online website

International

UEA e-mails leak climate scientist defends his work - 2 February
The scientist at the centre of a row over climate change research has defended himself against claims that he manipulated data. Professor Phil Jones, former director of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia (UEA), said his results "stand up to scrutiny". Sceptics claim the e-mails, leaked after a UEA server was hacked into, showed data was being manipulated. - BBC News website

Regards
Mary

IT/Website Administrator

KwaZulu-Natal Law Society