Masuku & Others v Minister of Mineral Resources & Others

The Gauteng High Court dismissed an application to review the granting and transfer of mining rights to Aquila Steel and Motjoli Iron Ore, ruling that the initial award under the previous regulatory regime was lawful and that the court lacked the technical expertise to override executive decisions on environmental impacts.

• The court upheld the Minister of Mineral Resources' decisions to award a mining right to Aquila Steel (South Africa) Pty Ltd and the subsequent transfer of that right to Motjoli Iron Ore (Pty) Ltd, dismissing the application with costs.
• The court ruled that the granting of the mining right to Aquila in 2013 was lawful because, under transitional arrangements and the Interpretation Act, applications pending before an amending enactment is implemented are decided without regard to that enactment; therefore, the One Environmental System (OES) of December 2014 did not apply to the July 2013 application.
• The court declined to rule on whether the mining would cause unacceptable pollution or ecological degradation, stating that review applications assess the existence of a 'reviewable irregularity' rather than the correctness of an executive decision, and that the court lacked the technical skill to determine environmental impacts.
• The court refused to grant a declaratory order designating the Waterberg and Mopani District Municipalities as bio-critical and biodiversity regions unsuitable for mining, finding that doing so would infringe upon the separation of powers and affect the rights of uncited third parties.

APA

Danjelle (2023). Masuku & Others v Minister of Mineral Resources & Others. Centre for Environmental Rights. https://cer.org.za/virtual-library/judgments/high-courts/masuku-others-v-minister-of-mineral-resources-others

Chicago

Danjelle. Masuku & Others v Minister of Mineral Resources & Others. Centre for Environmental Rights, 2023. https://cer.org.za/virtual-library/judgments/high-courts/masuku-others-v-minister-of-mineral-resources-others.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Danjelle |title=Masuku & Others v Minister of Mineral Resources & Others |publisher=Centre for Environmental Rights |date=10 March 2023 |url=https://cer.org.za/virtual-library/judgments/high-courts/masuku-others-v-minister-of-mineral-resources-others |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{danjelle2023masuku, author = {Danjelle}, title = {{Masuku \& Others v Minister of Mineral Resources \& Others}}, institution = {Centre for Environmental Rights}, year = {2023}, month = mar, url = {https://cer.org.za/virtual-library/judgments/high-courts/masuku-others-v-minister-of-mineral-resources-others}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }