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The case challenges the government’s failure to enforce regulations that would protect people from air pollution in the Highveld Priority Area. (Per-Anders Pettersson/Getty Images)

Landmark ‘Deadly Air’ case heads to supreme court of appeal

Environment organisations groundWork and Vukani Environmental Justice Movement argue that regulations are necessary to save lives on the polluted Highveld

Other sources of air pollution such as coal, wood and paraffin increase when the coal-fired power stations are down. (Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Eskom load-shedding an ‘air quality disaster too’ – experts

Other sources of air pollution such as coal, wood and paraffin increase when the coal-fired power stations are down

Dirty coal: Nomsa Zulu (left) wants clean energy for health reasons. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

Just transition consultations haven’t filtered down to people on the ground

Residents living near coal mines in Mpumalanga say they feel left out of the just energy transition

South Africa’s landfill sites are in a terrible state and if drastic measures are not taken, the country will soon drown in its own waste. (Andy Mkosi)

It’s time to clean up South Africa’s polluted air

Families in areas of Mpumalanga have to choose between work and health, but new WHO air quality guidelines say the time to act is now

The toxic air pollution on the Mpumalanga Highveld is a 50-year-old problem that cannot  “miraculously” be fixed overnight, argued the advocate for Barbara Creecy, the minister of forestry, fisheries and the environment.
(Photo by Per-Anders Pettersson/Getty Images)

Right to clean air ‘progressively realisable’ in polluted Mpumalanga Highveld, court hears

State argues dirty air can’t be ‘miraculously’ fixed overnight in final day of proceedings in landmark Deadly Air case

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.

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

In 2024, global coal consumption reached a record high, with commercial banks investing more than $130 billion across Asia, the US and Europe.. (Paul Botes)

Coal industry under increasing pressure to focus on a just transition

As investors ditch fossil fuels, environmental lobby groups are using advocacy and litigation to force SA’s biggest polluters to change their ways

Mapule Mdhuli and her son Anthony.

‘We’re fighting to breathe clean air’

The state has filed its opposition to the Deadly Air case, with the environment minister claiming no causal link can be found between air pollution and ill health

State ‘dragging its feet’ in watershed Mpumalanga pollution case

Sixteen months after the launch of the Deadly Air court case, the government has failed to file its answering affidavits