SAVE LANGEBAAN LAGOON – PUBLIC PARTICIPATION MEETING ON 14 MARCH

The epic fight to save the Langebaan Lagoon from the environmental impact of aqua-marine farming is a marathon tug of war between national authorities and concerned residents . . . 

Here is the latest update from the action group Save Langebaan Lagoon.

Dear Member

As most of you are aware, Save Langebaan Lagoon has submitted an appeal against the granting of environmental authorisations to DAFF and Molapong, by the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA).

As part of the Appeal Process, the developers, (DAFF and Molapong), have the right to submit Responding Statements to our grounds of appeal. We have posted these documents for you to peruse. These Responding Statements are considered in conjunction with our appeal in the weighing up of the merits of our appeal.

Although all registered Interested and Affected Parties (I&APs) receive a copy of these Responding Statements, we do not have the right to respond. In other words, the developers get the last say in “persuading” the appeal evaluation process.

Please note, it is typical for a developer to use aggression, bluster and strong denials/accusations/ side-swipes in their Responding Statement in order to discredit an appeal, as is evident from these Responding Statements. Please bear in mind that our appeal is currently before the Appeals and Legal Review Directorate within the DEA.

It is not a court of law and if our appeal is set aside, we retain the right to a judicial review of the Environmental Authorisations. Whilst our appeal is under consideration, the Environmental Authorisations are suspended and the developers may not commence any new aquaculture operations.

HOW DO YOU SAVE A LAGOON? TUG OF WAR CONTINUES . . . WATCH FOCUS on SABC2 on Sunday!