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The coal mining industry in Emalahleni is volatile with many illegal miners having infiltrated the business

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Sizwe sama Yende

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Mineral Resources and Energy Minister, Gwede Mantashe, will now have to answer in court for abandoning a small mining company that was bullied to leave land where it had a legal permit to extract coal.

Mantashe would not have to go through the rigmarole of court processes had he stuck by his decision and protected an emerging mining company, Messenger Trading CC owned by Siddique Bonco, against encroachment on Suurwater 366 JS in Emalahleni where it has prospecting rights.

Eyethu Coal, which Bonco accused of mining on his land, has decided to lodge an application in the Pretoria High Court to claim its right on the land.

Eyethu Coal’s executive, Ross Robertson, declined to comment.

The fight over Suurwater started in 2020 when the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy awarded Messenger Trading CC prospecting rights on Suurwater 366 JS in Emalahleni.

It was not long, according to Bonco, that Eyethu Coal encroached on his land and began extracting coal. Bonco registered a complaint with Mantashe.

Mantashe launched an investigation and concluded that Messenger Trading was granted a prospecting permit.

“After consideration of the facts before me, I, Gwede Samson Mantashe, Minister: Mineral Resources and Energy, hereby dismiss the appeal by Eyethu Coal and uphold the decisions by the regional manager and the director-general to accept and grant an application for execution of a prospecting right to Messenger Trading CC in respect of the remaining extent of the farm Suurwater 366 JS situated in the magisterial district of Witbank [Emalahleni], Mpumalanga,” Mantashe said on June 6, 2020.

Eyethu responded with an appeal, which it lost.

Mantashe’s investigation found that when Eyethu applied for the mining rights, Suurwater was excluded because that portion of land was the subject of a prospecting and mining right application by Kubra Mining. Mantashe said that Kubra’s application was eventually rejected.

The minister added that when Eyethu’s mining right on the nearby land was approved, Suurwater was excluded because Kubra’s application was still pending at that time.

“There is no record of any Section 102 amendment of the Mining Rights Act. According to departmental records, there was also no application, either in terms of Section 16 or 22 of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act of 2002 for the inclusion of the remaining extent of the farm Suurwater into the rights of the appellant [Eyethu],” Mantashe found.

“After consideration of the facts before me, I, Gwede Samson Mantashe, Minister: Mineral Resources and Energy, hereby dismiss the appeal by Eyethu Coal and uphold the decisions by the regional manager and the director-general to accept and grant an application for execution of a prospecting right to Messenger Trading CC in respect of the remaining extent of the farm Suurwater 366 JS situated in the magisterial district of Witbank [Emalahleni], Mpumalanga.”

Bonco said he was surprised when Mantashe did not file opposing papers when Eyethu approached the Pretoria High Court to apply for a review of Mantashe’s decision.  “No official from his office attended the court hearing,” he said.

Eyethu left the matter until October 31 last year and filed review papers again. Mantashe has not yet filed any papers to defend his decision. The matter is set for April 22 this year.

Bonco has alleged that Eyethu Coal approached him with an intention of forming a partnership on condition that he stopped fighting for his land. Bonco rejected the proposal.

The coal mining industry in Emalahleni is volatile with many illegal miners having infiltrated the business. Bonco said he had been intimidated and received death threats many times from the illegal mine workers on his property.

He has laid four cases at the Vosman Police Station near Emalahleni since 2020.

Bonco claimed that a warrant officer investigating his cases was injured in a shoot-out with und ercover members of the National Anti-Corruption and Intervention Unit in a sting operation in August 2022.

The officer had allegedly demanded a R500 000 bribe after clinching a mining deal for someone and the undercover police swooped on him when he was about to collect the money at Highveld Park.