Wreaking environmental havoc

In court papers, a conservation group is accusing the government of allowing 'environmental lawlessness'

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A claim of the government allowing environmental crimes on the Wild Coast in the Eastern Cape has emerged in court papers filed in the High Court in Pretoria by the Wild Coast Development Forum and 47 other applicants.

The applicants are seeking a court order compelling three ministers and several government officials to enforce environmental conservation laws along this specially protected 260km stretch of coastline.

The forum, chaired by Dr Div de Villiers, the former provincial head of the Green Scorpions environmental law enforcement unit in the Eastern Cape, alleges that environmental laws are no longer being applied on the Wild Coast. This is leading to the steady degradation of this unique coastal environment due to illegal sand mining, the destruction of indigenous forests, and erection of holiday cottages and other residential structures directly next to the beaches.

The forum and several members of the Umgungundlovu and Tsweleni communities are now seeking a mandamus and other legal remedies to compel officials to enforce environmental protection laws.

In his founding affidavit, De Villiers charges that a "situation of anarchy" has arisen along the coast because of more than 250 illegal and unregulated sand mining sites emerging along this section of coast; the unplanned spread of residential settlements in environmentally sensitive areas; and other destructive activities that have "the potential to destroy the Wild Coast as a tourism and biodiversity conservation asset for the Eastern Cape".

Disturbingly, he asserts that there has been a "lack of assistance" from officials in the Mthatha office of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), along with allegations of "political interference" in enforcing environmental laws by the Eastern Cape Department of Economic Development, Environmental Affairs and Tourism, and the national Department of Mineral Resources and Energy.

Political interference