Mapungubwe World Heritage Site in the northern province of Limpopo, is the reason why UNESCO is sending in a team of environmental experts to South Africa. The experts will be on ground next week to look into the impact of mining at the World Heritage listed site.
There have been allegations of the Vele Colliery not complying with environmental laws. The division of CoAL of Africa Limited has had to shut down its mining activities since August. This included construction of access roads and use of pipelines. There was also the matter of building a dam on the site for water storage.
The statement from the Save Mapungubwe coalition group forced the issue of the notice in August which stopped the mining activities. Spokesman for the group, Werner Myburgh is glad that the UNESCO team of experts would arrive at Mapungubwe this week to assess the impact that the Vele mine may have had on the heritage site.
The mine is located about six km from the Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape and National Park where the world-famous 800-year-old gold rhino statuette was unearthed in 1933. The government has declared that the company was involved in illegal mining activities as it was yet to receive approval for Environmental Impact Assessments.