It’s back to the drawingboard for paper giant Mondi after a Durban judge ruled on Wednesday it could not build an incinerator to burn waste and generate steam at its south Durban plant.
Judge Jan Hugo’s judgment, handed down in the Durban High Court, stopped Mondi’s construction of the incinerator until a full environmental impact assessment (EIA) was completed, the Legal Resources Centre reported on Wednesday.
The KwaZulu-Natal department of environmental affairs and agriculture granted Mondi-Biotrace the go-ahead for the R320-million incinerator’s construction in September last year.
However, the department gave Biotrace, the company selected to build the incinerator, the green light based on a oral exemption from certain EIA regulations. An incomplete EIA was conducted. Living nearby are about 200 000 people.
In 1996 an alliance of 14 community organisations was formed — the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA). They have worked together since then on environmental issues affecting their communities, all in the industrialised south Durban area.
The SDCEA turned to the courts, appealing against this exemption, but only after taking their case to then agriculture and environmental affairs MEC Narend Singh last October. The SDCEA took the matter to the high court on review after written confirmation of the exemption by the provincial environmental affairs department’s Sarah Allen in February this year.
Hugo ruled that the exemption was ”a nullity” as it had not been given in writing, and was not based on a written application. No reasons were given for the exemption either, he said.
The SDCEA said Hugo’s judgement set an ”important precedent”, showing that the provincial government and its agents were not above the law.
The department was ordered to pay the costs of the application, and Biotrace the costs of unsuccessfully opposing the application for interim relief.
The MEC and Mondi did not oppose the application. – Sapa