NEWS & OPINION
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During 2020 the South African mining industry was shut during level five lockdown and operated with limited capacity upon resumption of operations. In early January 2021, more miners returned to work although the industry had recorded about 233 COVID-19-related deaths by the same period. This will necessitate more efforts to ensure workers’ safety and overcome the shortcomings in the fight against COVID-19 in 2020.
The Community of Practice: Waste to Value (of which the Mineral Law in Africa Chair is a part) accepted the invitation for comments on the Extended Producer Responsibility Regulations (EPR regulations). The CoP endorsed the policy direction and considers the furthering of section 18 of the National Environment Management: Waste Act (Waste Act) in South Africa an innovative avenue to explore.
On 11 May 2020, the Chief Inspector of Mines published the Draft Guideline for the Compilation of a Mandatory Code of Practice for the Mitigation and Management of Covid-19 Outbreak. Interested persons were invited to submit written comments on the Draft Guideline by 14 May 2020. This commentary was submitted by the MLiA Chair - led by Mr Gaopalelwe Mathiba - to provide the Chair's views on the guidelines.
Jonah Maghanga Mngola: A Remembrance by Hanri Mostert.
Up to this point, this series of articles has covered two diseases whose existence is firmly in the past, namely smallpox and the deadly strain of H1N1 influenza referred to as the Spanish Flu. The aim of these articles is to demonstrate the inextricable link between the histories of disease outbreaks and mining in South Africa, from the mining industry’s infancy in the late 1800s into the 1900s. However, since the 1980s, the mining industry in South Africa has been beset by a new invisible enemy, one that cannot simply be expected to burn itself out in a year or two following an outbreak.
Mining-affected communities once again secured a victory on 14 September 2020 when the Pretoria High Court handed down a landmark judgment in Baleni v Regional Manager: Eastern Cape DMR.
Gas flaring in Nigeria currently leads to enormous economic losses and damages to the environment and human health, but that may soon change.
On the 26th of June 2020, the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries (DEFF) invited comments on the Extended Producer Responsibility Regulations. These regulations came after a policy shift away from Industry Waste Management Plans towards the principle of Extended Producer Responsibility.
As South Africa moves towards the tide of sustainable development goals regarding waste management, the nation finds itself in a pool of broad ideological concepts.
However, it has not been smooth sailing as far as keeping Covid-19 under control in the mining industry is concerned. Recently, the Minerals Council South Africa has rebuffed claims that the mining industry has become the “epicentre” for the Covid-19 outbreak in the country. From a historical point of view, it should be no surprise that the mining industry is a lightning rod in the midst of a pandemic.
South Africa faces a scourge of illegal mining; being small-scale mining on otherwise ‘inactive’ mineral resources without legal authority. It both disrupts the legitimate mining industry and gives rise to ancillary criminal activity on a huge scale.
Malawi is a landlocked southeastern African country bordering Tanzania, Mozambique, and Zambia. It is endowed with varied minerals such as gemstones, coal, uranium and others. Despite its mineral wealth, however, Malawi has a relatively low dependency rate on the exploitation of mineral resources for economic advancement.
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