Environmental laws holding back development must be relaxed, says minister

Legislation forcing adherence to strict environmental regulations is radically slowing down and even restricting development and should be relaxed, Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Sicelo Shiceka believes.

During a visit to the Garden Route municipalities of Kou-kamma and Bitou over the weekend, Shiceka said private sector developers, in particular, often lost interest in the face of the onerous demands of environmental laws.

The minister said he had been given the task of consulting municipalities and stakeholders across the country to collate input on which legislation was impacting on service delivery and holding up development, and therefore required amendment.

The National Environmental Management Act had been identified as one of the laws which should be changed, Shiceka said.

The consultative process should be completed around June, after which the government was determined to amend targeted legislation before the end of the year, he said.

"We are not saying environmental issues are not important, or that development approval should be granted without consideration of the environment, but the process is taking way too long."

The requirement for fragmented approval by various government departments was another stumbling block which should be amended in order to speed up development. "We need a 'one-stop shop' to deal with applications," Shiceka said.

# The state-owned African Exploration Mining and Finance Corporation, which raised the ire of conservationists with its application for prospecting rights in the winelands and on the Garden Route, has apparently lost interest in its search for strategic minerals in the Western Cape.

African Exploration is wholly owned by the government's Central Energy Fund (CEF) and has reportedly been exempted from the legal requirement to carry out environmental studies before mining operations take place.

In a statement posted on the CEF website, African Exploration Chairman Mputumi Damane said the company had decided to withdraw its application to prospect for minerals in the Western Cape "for strategic business reasons".

Environmentalists, however, hailed the move as a victory gained by the pressure they had applied on the company.

Advocate Martin Coetzee, appointed to represent land-owners affected by the mining company's exploration intentions, thanked his clients on Friday for the "humungous collective effort" leading to the withdrawal of the application.

Garden Route Media

Posted at 10:44AM Mar 30, 2010 by Editor in Market  |  Comments[2]