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This filing notice and updated practice note, submitted by the Centre for Environmental Rights (CER) on December 8, 2020, outlines an appeal in the High Court of South Africa (Gauteng Division, Pretoria). The appeal challenges a Water Tribunal decision that dismissed a previous appeal against the granting of a water use licence (WUL) to Atha-Africa Ventures (Pty) Ltd by the Department of Water and Sanitation.

This document is an affidavit filed by Praveer Tripathi, Senior Vice President of Atha-Africa Ventures (Pty) Ltd (now Uthaka Energy), in the High Court of South Africa. The affidavit responds to a filing by the Centre for Environmental Rights (CER), alleging that the CER and its attorney, Catherine Horsfield, have a conflict of interest because they are acting as both legal representatives for environmental groups and as activists with their own agenda to stop coal mining. Tripathi details a decade of litigation and media campaigns led by the CER to obstruct Atha-Africa's coal-mining project in the Mabola Protected Environment, arguing that these actions follow a global 'disrupt and delay' strategy used by environmental NGOs to make fossil fuel projects unviable.

The Third Respondent, Atha-Africa Ventures (Pty) Ltd, submitted heads of argument to the High Court of South Africa (Mpumalanga Division) opposing a judicial review application by several environmental NGOs. The Applicants seek to set aside a decision to rezone Portion 1 of the Farm Yzermyn 96 HT from agricultural to mining use. The Third Respondent argues that the application is a strategic attempt by the 'Green Lobby' to delay the Yzermyn coal mine and that the environmental concerns raised have already been adjudicated and dismissed by the Water Tribunal and the Pretoria High Court.

The 'State of Global Environmental Governance 2024' report by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) analyzes the intersection of environmental governance and a global 'polycrisis' characterized by geopolitical instability, climate disasters, and financial crises. It highlights a trend toward 'greenlash' and the increasing role of international courts in enforcing environmental commitments, while noting that global governance remains largely siloed across the Rio Conventions and other multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs).