The Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association(ZELA) files a case against #Chinese miners
IN THE HIGH COURT OF ZIMBABWE CASENO.HC /20 HELD AT HARARE
In the matter between:
FIDELIS CHIMA 1ST APPLICANT
ZIMBABWE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW ASSOCIATION
2ND APPLICANT
And
ZIMBABWE ZHONGXIN MINING GROUP
TONGMAO COAL COMPANY (PVT) LTD 1ST RESPONDENT
And
ZIMBABWE MINING DEVELOPMENT
CORPORATION 2ND RESPONDENT
And
MINISTER OF MINES & MINING
DEVELOPMENT 3RD RESPONDENT
And
ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT AGENCY 4TH RESPONDENT
URGENT CHAMBER APPLICATION
Urgent Application is hereby made for an order in terms of the Draft Order annexed to this application on the grounds that:
- The 1st Applicant is a resident of Hwange whose home district is threatened by 1st Respondent`s mining activities inside of Hwange National Park; and
- 2nd Applicant is an organisation established to pursue the protection of environmental rights including the rights of wildlife, particularly endangered specially protected animal species some of which, in the whole of Zimbabwe, are only found in Hwange; and
- In an act of retrospective regularization or inversion of statutory process, 1st Respondent who is a special purpose vehicle for the 2nd Respondent, was granted an Environmental Impact Assessment Certificate on 1st September, 2020 following submission of its application for the same on 7 August, 2020. some nineteen months after the issuance of a Special Grant in favour of the 2nd Respondent by the 3rd Respondent on 22 February, 2019;
- The issuance of the Special Grant in February 2020 before Environmental Impact Assessment is in violation of section 97 of the Environmental Management Act, [Chapter 20:27] therefore Applicants shall file simultaneously with this Urgent Chamber Application, an application for Review of the 3rd Respondent`s issuance of a Special Grant to 2nd Respondent in February 2019 before Environmental Impact Assessment certification of the project;
- The park and its wildlife face imminent disruption if not devastation from coalmining activities once exploration and drilling with the attendant water and air pollution commence; and
- Authorisation of, and commencement of mining in a protected National Park is in breach of the constitutional duty on all Respondents to prevent ecological degradation and promote conservation in terms of section 73(b) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, 2013; and
- In terms of a news article of The Guardian of 3 September 2020, the 1st Respondent`s consultant expressed the intention to commence drilling once the Environmental Impact Assessment certification is obtained. The certification was obtained on 1 September, 2020; and
- Inevitably, Hwange National Park shall consequently, within the immediately forthcoming period become a site for drilling, land clearance, road building and geological surveys at two proposed sites inside of the National Park;
- Concomitantly there is acute risk of irreversible ecological degradation including unmitigated loss of animal and vegetative species, reduction of animal habitats of many rare species including black rhino, pangolin, elephant, and wild (painted) dogs;
- Already, loss of both human and animal life has occurred as a direct result of the inevitable emigration from the National Park by the various animal species fleeing their former habitat;
- In turn, safari tourism, an ecologically sustainable use of the resource, which is a vital source of income for the local people will be destroyed as the world`s largest natural mammal colony shall be ruined;
- Since drilling and other land-stripping activity is imminent, the Applicants have been prompted to urgently seek this Honourable Court’s intervention to interdict the 1st, and 2nd Respondents from causing the ruination of the once pristine Hwange National Park which hitherto, as a specially protected wildlife and heritage site, has been under consideration for the five nation Kavango- Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area.
The accompanying affidavit(s) and document(s) are tendered in support of the application.
If you intend to oppose this application, you have to file your notice of opposition. You will have to file a Notice of Opposition in Form No. 29A, together with one or more opposing affidavits, with the Registrar of the High Court. You will also have to serve a copy of the Notice of Opposition and affidavit/s on the applicants at the address for service specified below. Your affidavits may have annexed to them documents verifying the facts set out in the affidavits.
If you do not file an opposing affidavit, this
application will be set down for hearing in the High Court at Harare without
further notice to you and will be dealt with as an unopposed application.
DATED AT HARARE THIS 6TH DAY OF SEPTEMBER, 2020
TO: THE REGISTRAR
High Court of Zimbabwe
HARARE
ZIMBABWE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW
ASSOCIATION
Applicants’ Legal Practitioners
26B Seke Road,
Hatfield,
HARARE (Mr. Ncube)
And To: ZIMBABWE ZHONGXIN MINING GROUP
TONGMAO COAL COMPANY (PVT) LTD
1ST Respondent 17777 Tredgold Road, Belvedere,
HARARE
AND TO: ZIMBABWE MINING DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
2nd Respondent MMCZ Building 90 Mutare Road, Msasa, HARARE
AND TO: MINISTER OF MINES & MINING DEVELOPMENT
3rd Respondent
ZIMRE Complex,
Corner Leopold Takawira & Kwame Nkrumah Avenue,
HARARE
AND TO: ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT AGENCY
4th Respondent
685/6 Lorraine|Faber Drive, Bluffhill,
HARARE
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