By Xolile Bhengu

Three officials from the provincial agriculture, conservation and environment department have been charged with using “cowboy tactics” in allowing environmentally questionable developments to go ahead.

The Environment and Conservation Association has laid seven charges against Khabisi Mosunkutu, MEC of the Gauteng department of agriculture, conservation and environment (GDACE), and his two officials, Steven Cornelius and John Nosidini, for contravening the laws of the Water Act, by awarding positive records of development (RODs) and ignoring negative environmental impact assessments.

The association’s Nicole Barlow said the act allowed for two remedies for individuals found to have broken the laws. These include a fine of between R10000 and R1-million, or time to be served in jail.

She said since 2003 the organisation had patiently gathered evidence against the GDACE officials to make for a strong case.

“Developers are not submitting any studies,” Barlow said.

“They are just walking in and out of the MEC’s office, and they ask for what they want and he makes it happen. We have laid a charge against each individual and we are pushing for the harshest sentence to be exerted for each.

“We needed to accumulate evidence over a long period as some developments may be approved and only actually start to build three years later,” Barlow said, adding that they had spent 19 months accumulating evidence and information in one particular case.

The association said the Gauteng province was under severe pressure to develop and expand economically, and that it was not against this.

The association’s charges come hot on the heels of a request by the DA for Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa to institute an independent commission of inquiry into the GDACE with regard to eight developments.

The opposition party said the inquiry would be a first for the province’s departments, and would have to be chaired by a senior advocate or a judge.

Some of the developments under the microscope include Gary Player’s Blair Atholl golf estate north- west of Johannesburg, which is estimated to be worth R800-million.

Also being examined are the Ebotse development and Clearwater Estates.

Ebotse is worth R500-million and sells properties and vacant stands from R620000 to R3.5-million. Clearwater Estates has 521 stands with a combined net value estimated at more than R300-million. The two developments are said to have been given the green light with disregard for the eco-system.

A difficult case is the Libradene Wetlands petrol station, where the developer could not be charged as his records had been destroyed in an inferno at the GDACE offices in 2003.

During court proceedings in 2005 a copy of the positive ROD, alleged to have been signed by former department head Trish Hanekom, was produced.

However Hanekom said a negative ROD had been signed, and an expert could not determine from the copy of the original ROD whether it had been forged or not.

If the Gauteng department officials are charged and sent to prison, they will follow the 2003 precedence set by former Western Cape Environment MEC David Malatsi, a member of the New National Party, who was sentenced to five years in prison.

Shilowa’s spokesman Simon Zwane said he was studying allegations of misconduct by Mosunkutu, and the 20-page document submitted by the DA.

“He has asked the MEC responsible for GDACE, Khabisi Mosunkuntu, to provide him with a response to the claims contained in the DA report,” said Zwane.

“The MEC is expected to provide a response by the end of [this] week. The Premier will then decide the best way to handle the matter after studying both reports from the DA and from the MEC.

Barlow said the MEC needed to be given a strong message that nature and its protector organisations had stomached enough.

“We want to let them know that we will do anything to protect the environment, and from now on we will be watching each and every official to make sure that these things never happen any longer.

“If they do, everyone involved will feel the brunt of litigation and prosecution.”

Source: Sunday Times