Submission to Portfolio Committee on Mineral Resources on the MPRDA Amendment Bill: Closure, rehabilitation and financial provision (section 43 of the Act)

This joint submission by several environmental organisations and a consultant to the Portfolio Committee on Mineral Resources addresses the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Amendment Bill [B15-2013]. The authors focus on the issues of mine closure, rehabilitation, and financial provision, specifically arguing against a proposed 20-year limit on the retention of funds for latent environmental impacts and calling for better alignment between the MPRDA and the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA).

• The submitters support the proposed amendment to section 43(1) of the MPRDA, which ensures that the holder of a mining or prospecting right remains responsible for environmental liability, pollution, and sustainable closure even after the Minister has issued a closure certificate. This change aligns the MPRDA with section 24 of the Constitution, section 28 of NEMA, and section 19 of the National Water Act, 1998.
• The authors strongly oppose the proposed amendment to section 43(6), which would limit the Minister's ability to retain financial provisions for latent or residual safety, health, or environmental impacts to a period of 20 years after a closure certificate is issued. They argue this period is arbitrary and may be insufficient, as some impacts, such as acid mine drainage (AMD), can emerge decades later.
• The submission highlights a lack of coordination between the parliamentary processes for the MPRDA Amendment Bill and the National Environmental Management Laws Amendment Bill 26 of 2013 (NEMLAB 3). Because financial provision for environmental damage will be governed by section 24P of NEMA, the authors argue it is illogical that hearings for these integrally linked pieces of legislation are separate and held before different portfolio committees.
• The submitters propose that the Bill should include a mechanism for the independent review of financial provisions and their annual reassessment for sufficiency, a recommendation originally made in a 2012 WWF-SA report that the authors claim was not acknowledged by the Department of Mineral Resources.
• The authors recommend that section 43 be expressly updated to require that liability for both known and unknown latent/residual impacts be assessed for decommissioning and closure. To support this, they propose that decommissioning and closure be designated as a listed activity requiring environmental authorisation.

APA

Botha, M. (2013). Submission to Portfolio Committee on Mineral Resources on the MPRDA Amendment Bill: Closure, rehabilitation and financial provision (section 43 of the Act). Centre for Environmental Rights. https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Joint-Submission-on-MPRDA-Amendment-Bill-6-Sept-2013-Closure-rehabilitation-and-financial-provision.pdf?x21779

Chicago

Botha, Mark. Submission to Portfolio Committee on Mineral Resources on the MPRDA Amendment Bill: Closure, rehabilitation and financial provision (section 43 of the Act). Centre for Environmental Rights, 2013. https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Joint-Submission-on-MPRDA-Amendment-Bill-6-Sept-2013-Closure-rehabilitation-and-financial-provision.pdf?x21779.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Botha |first1=Mark |title=Submission to Portfolio Committee on Mineral Resources on the MPRDA Amendment Bill: Closure, rehabilitation and financial provision (section 43 of the Act) |publisher=Centre for Environmental Rights |date=6 September 2013 |url=https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Joint-Submission-on-MPRDA-Amendment-Bill-6-Sept-2013-Closure-rehabilitation-and-financial-provision.pdf?x21779 |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{botha2013submission, author = {Botha, Mark}, title = {{Submission to Portfolio Committee on Mineral Resources on the MPRDA Amendment Bill: Closure, rehabilitation and financial provision (section 43 of the Act)}}, publisher = {Centre for Environmental Rights}, year = {2013}, month = sep, url = {https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Joint-Submission-on-MPRDA-Amendment-Bill-6-Sept-2013-Closure-rehabilitation-and-financial-provision.pdf?x21779}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }