No environmental assessments done for months

MBOMBELA – There is a department known only by name and not by what its function is or by what it has achieved.

This is a description of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) management office of the Ehlanzeni South district of the Mpumalanga department of environmental affairs.

After some investigation it came to light that very little official work had been done by officials of this office for at least six months. Lowvelder reported on a similar situation in November 2014, when the electricity supply to the department’s former offices, was cut because of unpaid bills.

Before the general election in May 2014, environmental affairs fell under the finance department.

The provincial legislature decided after the election that it should forthwith be under the Department of Agriculture, Rural Development and Land Affairs, under MEC Mr Andries Gamede.

Environmental Assessment Practitioners (EAPs), who don’t want to be named, have complained to Lowvelder that no impact assessments have been considered or carried out for quite a few months.

“They have not looked at or attended to one EIA report received since October. They have indicated that all the legal time frames will be exceeded. We know they will do their best to catch up, but there is a limit to what they can manage under the current working conditions. We are thus looking at a three-month delay of EIA final reports submitted in October and November last year.”

Boxes and empty desks at Ehlanzeni District Office

The reason for this is that the authorisation officials do not yet have any Internet connection and rely on their own personal cellphones, while all their files, reports and research material are still packed in boxes.

Apparently this has serious repercussions for businesses, such as lodges which need to plan a year or more ahead for maintenance and upgrades. “Some of these establishments have undertaken all the correct procedures like public participation, among others. and have had their EIA reports submitted well in time. They have planned with sound margins, but now with this delay, these margins may well mean they have an empty lodge, with a contractor ready and on site, but with no environmental authorisation.”

This is not service delivery, an EAP told Lowvelder and added:

“The MEC must be held accountable. He has been in the position for nine months, but for a third of that time his environmental department has effectively not existed.”

Comment received from Ms Zanele Shabangu, the communications officer of the Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Land and Environmental Affairs, merely highlighted the progress made and not the problems experienced, “The processes to integrate the environmental services into the department are underway, and there is significant progress.”