Mokaba Gets Prospecting Next to Kruger Park Reviewed. (29 October, 1996)

Intervention by Deputy Environment Minister Peter Mokaba has prompted a review of the decision to allow diamond prospecting in the Madimbo Corridor. Last week the Director-General of Mineral and Energy Affairs announced that he had dismissed an appeal by the National Parks Board against the granting of a prospecting permit to Madimbu Diamond Corporation. This will now be reviewed after consultations between Mokaba and Mineral and Energy Affairs Minister Penuell Maduna.

The Madimbo Corridor adjoining the Kruger Park has been identified as a key area in long-term ecotourism plans for a transfrontier peace park linking four countries - Mozambique, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Botswana. The prospecting permit was granted last year, and at the time the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism raised no objections to what its Director-General, Dr Colin Cameron, described as 'an astonishing series of bureaucratic bungles'. Mokaba said his ministry was responsible for ensuring that sustainable development plans and decisions were taken regarding the Madimbo Corridor, and that proper mechanisms of transparency and consultation with all stakeholders were put into place as a matter of urgency.

'As Deputy Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, I have held discussions with Minister Maduna to request that he suspends the decision taken by his Department until a thorough strategic environmental assessment and studies to determine the best land-use options in the area have been carried out. 'It has been agreed that mining in the Madimbo Corridor cannot proceed in the light of the ecological sensitivity of the corridor, land claims in the area, current proposals for developing ecotourism peace parks, and the processes and procedures by which the company obtained a mining permit,' Mokaba said. By Anita Allen. Courtesy of The Star.