Abstract
M.A. (Environmental Management)
The mining industry is a key sector in South Africa’s economy and serves as a critical source of export
revenues and employment opportunities. The South African mining sector contributes on average 18% of the
country’s gross domestic product, 50% of foreign exchange earnings and nearly 20% of total investment.
Despite these positive attributes, the mining industry can have detrimental impacts to the biophysical and
human environment. These negative effects include a range of direct, indirect, cumulative, latent and
residual impacts. Moreover, these impacts can be short term, or long term, thus lasting for decades and even
centuries meanwhile others are permanent or irreversible. If not prevented or mitigated effectively and
timeously, these impacts can pose serious risks to livelihoods and environment quality. In order to prevent or
mitigate such adverse environmental impacts appropriately, applicable integrated environmental
management tools such as Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) must be utilized.
Several studies conducted internationally have revealed a number of problem areas or weaknesses within
the EIA process, thus demonstrating the potential for compromising the quality of environmental decision–
making processes. As a result, there is a need for improvements in EIA reporting and effectiveness. More
quality review research is required to broaden the baseline of EIA report quality to allow for comparisons.
However, the amount of empirical research on EIA quality in South Africa is limited, especially with regard to
the promulgation of the National Environmental Management Act, No. 107 of 1998 (NEMA) EIA 2010
Regulations. In view of this limited understanding, the current study has evaluated the quality of
environmental impact statements (EIS) dealing with the authorization of selected mining projects in the
Limpopo Province produced under, both, the 2010 NEMA EIA Regulations and the MPRDA EIA Regulations.
The Lee and Colley review package was adapted to accommodate the South African EIA legislative
requirements (viz: the NEMA and MPRDA EIA requirements). Research results have indicated that the
quality of 70% of Environmental Impact Statements for mining projects in the Limpopo Province was of a
satisfactory quality. However, the remaining 30% of reports were of unsatisfactory quality. Although 70% of
the EISs were graded as satisfactory and therefore of an acceptable standard, none were graded A, only
10% was graded B and 60% of them were graded C.
The main deficiencies in the EIA reports related to alternatives, waste and residuals, certain aspects of the
baseline conditions, while the environment description, identification of impacts, scoping and public
participation, assessment of impact significance in the reports were of good quality. Despite the generally
satisfactory performance, there are areas where improvement is required. Furthermore, a number of
recommendations have been provided.