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The Democratic Alliance welcomes the public release today of the report to the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Acid Mine Drainage. While it has taken a long time to produce, the authors of the report have produced a technically sound and well researched piece of work that makes a number of recommendations on how government should respond to the acid mine drainage crisis. Most importantly the report acknowledges that AMD intervention and management are required as a matter of urgency in the Western, Central and Eastern Basins. The DA now calls on the national ANC government to make sure that no more time is lost in implementing the recommended responses.

The report correctly highlights that AMD cannot be allowed to pass the environmentally critical limits in each of the basins. In the Western Basin the level of AMD has already reached the surface and it is decanting continuously. The report warns that a decant of AMD can happen in the CBD of Nigel if AMD is not managed on the East Rand, and in the Central Basin the report points to a clear cause and effect relationship between seismic activity and mine flooding.

The report acknowledges the need for decant prevention and management, ingress control (which effectively means the reduction of the rate of flooding of mines), and water quality management, including the pumping and treatment of mine water. The DA welcomes the specific allocation by Minister Gordhan in the 2011-2012 budget for a response to AMD, which means that there is no reason why work on implementing recommendations should not commence immediately, if it has not already begun.

While Minister Trevor Manuel has publicly said there is “no need to panic”, this statement of his will only ring true once we see the promised pumping stations operational. Until that time the people of Gauteng, particularly those affected by the existing decant on the West Rand and possible decants elsewhere, have every reason to remain vigilant. The national ANC government is notoriously bad at delivering projects on time, and for this reason the existence of the published report does not alone reduce anxieties about AMD. In this regard, the DA pays tribute to the many activists and members of civil society who have been raising the alarm bells about AMD for the last 15 years. They have made an invaluable contribution, even if the national ANC government does not acknowledge their role.

I will be writing to the Portfolio Chair of Water and Environmental Affairs, the Hon. Johnny de Lange, to request that the report is formerly presented to Parliament, and that a business plan, with specific timelines and the associated budget, is presented so that the Portfolio Committee can hold the government to account. The timeframes are tight.

The DA believes strongly that existing mines cannot get off the hook without paying significantly towards the pumping and appropriate treatment of mine water. While the extreme urgency of the situation means that government has to get involved in funding the response, existing mines are responsible for some of the existing decant and potential decant, and they are also responsible for some of the historical decant.

Granted, establishing liability is difficult and highly contested, but the “polluter pays principle” must not be undermined. Having said this, government must be particularly heavy handed with the owners of the Grootvlei mine on the East Rand. They have run this mine into the ground, and while pumps were operational, untreated mine water was being pumped into the adjacent Blesbokspruit. Any money that government may spend in pumping and treating water from this mine must be recouped from the owners.
The national ANC government needs to learn from the historical legacy of mining in Gauteng, and pay attention now to the current and future effects of mining in Mpumalanga, where the concentration of new mining and prospecting rights is at a level never before seen in South Africa. The public purse cannot pay for the legacy of all the mines in South Africa.