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Mail & Guardian

Air Quality Act

latest news & developments
Undermined: The Magog community wants to stop SA Lithium from causing further damage to food sources, livestock and houses in Umzumbe on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast. Photo: Supplied
AIR QUALITY ACT

‘Save our village from the mine’

A KwaZulu-Natal community wants parliament to intervene to force SA Lithium to abide by mining and environmental laws

  • Paddy Harper
7 min read
Eskom is inadvertently helping drive the global sustainable energy movement by rapidly pricing South Africans out of the grid energy market. Photo: Waldo Swiegers/Getty Images
COAL RETROFITTING

Concern over retrofitting coal-fired power stations to reduce pollution

The Life After Coal campaign has argued that carbon capture technology requires burning more coal, increasing greenhouse gas emissions and other harmful chemicals

  • Mandisa Makgakga
4 min read
(John McCann/M&G)
AIR QUALITY ACT

Long-awaited legislation seeks to strengthen SA’s environmental regime

National Environmental Management Laws Amendment Act introduce new offences, increase quantum of fines, extend enforcement powers to municipal managers

  • Sheree Bega
5 min read
Sick of coal: Protesters from Mpumalanga gather outside the high court in Pretoria, where the Deadly Air case is taking place. (Daylin Paul)
AIR POLLUTION

‘We want to breathe fresh air’

The landmark Deadly Air Mpumalanga case has pitted two environmental justice groups against the state

  • Sheree Bega
7 min read
Ten thousand deaths could be avoided every year if the government took action to bring air pollution into compliance with national air quality standards on the Mpumalanga Highveld.
AIR QUALITY ACT

Landmark Deadly Air case: 10 000 deaths annually can be avoided

There is no legal mechanism in place to implement and enforce measures to prevent toxic air pollution in the Highveld

  • Sheree Bega
6 min read
Eskom faces fines of up to R5-million under South Africa’s air quality legislation for supplying blatantly false and misleading information about its toxic pollution at the Kendal coal-fired power station to authorities. (Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg/Getty Images)
AIR POLLUTANTS

Eskom could be fined R5-million over pollution at Kendal power station

The power utility is being taken to court by the Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries in a first-of-its-kind criminal prosecution

  • Sheree Bega
6 min read