Environmental activists are pitting government departments against each other in a desperate bid to save Gauteng’s last wild mountain space from becoming a concrete jungle. Without drastic intervention, they warn, the popular Walter Sisulu National Botanical Gardens on the West Rand will be decimated by townhouse estate development.

An Ekurhuleni business that illegally pumped toxic manganese fumes into the atmosphere has been ordered by court to plant 80 indigenous trees in a municipal park. Blue Sphere Investments Trading and its director, Nico Kruger, were also fined R100 000, or 10 years’ imprisonment. A third of the sentence was suspended for five years on condition that the business cleans up its act and the trees do not die.

When medical representative Nicole Barlow started asking questions about the building of a petrol station in a wetland, she never dreamed she would end up making legal history on the issues of freedom of expression and environmental rights. In a precedent-setting high court judgement, Barlow won a major victory for civil society watchdogs guarding the environment.

Police investigations into ”environmental thugs” trafficking in endangered wild animals for hunting received a shot in the arm with the unveiling of a proposed government crackdown. In particular, the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism’s tough new draft regulations on hunting coincided with new information on the activities of controversial Northern Cape hunting operator Alexander Steyn.