The Wonderfontein development, which was to take place between Sasolburg and Vanderbijlpark, has now been officially stopped.

This follows after AfriForum brought the Metsimaholo Municipality and the Department of Human Settlements before the court over this development that took place illegally.

The Metsimaholo Local Municipality confirmed this news in a letter to AfriForum.

This letter also contained a letter from the Department of Human Settlements in which the municipality was ordered to stop the development immediately until outstanding compliance measures, as required by the tribunal, were complied with. The department also says that the work that is now taking place there aims to secure the area.

According to Jaco Grobbelaar, AfriForum’s Regional Head for the Central Region, AfriForum is happy about the victory which is not only in favour of the community but also the environment. “We believed from the beginning that if the municipality met the requirements, it would benefit the community, but they are not prepared to meet the compliance requirements and therefore we stepped in to stop this development. The development would have had a huge negative impact on the environment as well as the safety of the community. I am glad we were able to prevent this and will intervene again in the future if the municipality decides to start developing recklessly.”