'Farmers and activists oppose risky gas project in Mpumalanga’ 1 April 2025

The proposed gas exploration project in the Mpumalanga highveld will affect food security and pose a health risk to people and animals if not conducted properly. This is the view of farmers, community members and environmental experts interviewed by The Citizen yesterday about the gas exploration project that will be conducted by Rhino Oil and Gas Exploration South Africa. Even though it is not clear when the project will start, The Citizen has seen a letter in which the company was inviting the affected communities to attend meetings to talk about the impact of the project in their area.

…“The impact of the mines on agricultural land is severe and devastating as we lose our agricultural production.” Van Zyl said the project must be planned properly to make sure it does not pollute the water resources, which are already in bad shape. He said the country has a lot of good legislation regarding the management of water, but they were not being applied. He added the authorities should avoid a situation of having unusable land that would fail to safely produce food. He said polluting the water source was dangerous because it would poison agricultural produce.

…He said the community had been struggling with water pollution and droughts and the project threatens to exacerbate those challenges. He also said the gas exploration activities require significant water resources, which could further strain the already limited water supply…Environmentalist Richard Magongo shared the same sentiment with Shabangu and said the project would negatively affect the biodiversity conservation resources and ecosystem. “Wetlands areas that are basically on upper catchments, as well as the farmers grazing lands, will be affected because of the heat evaporation that will happen during production and testing stages,” said Magongo.