William Shakespeare has proven it to us countless times; theatre is a great way of teaching a community to bring about change. Ten high school learners from Walmer Township near Port Elizabeth have helped develop a play that illustrates the dangers of pollution using physical theatre, puppetry and improvisational theatre.

With the rainstorms and snowfalls that have accompanied the winter of 2011, it might be hard to imagine that South Africa could be facing a water crisis ' but experts say that unless we start taking water saving measures seriously, we could see demand exceeding supply as soon as 2020. With another scorching summer just around the corner, South Africans will need to be especially careful when it comes to saving water.

With the rainstorms and snowfalls that have accompanied the winter of 2011, it might be hard to imagine that South Africa could be facing a water crisis ' but experts say that unless we start taking water saving measures seriously, we could see demand exceeding supply as soon as 2020. With another scorching summer just around the corner, South Africans will need to be especially careful when it comes to saving water.

With the rainstorms and snowfalls that have accompanied the winter of 2011, it might be hard to imagine that South Africa could be facing a water crisis ' but experts say that unless we start taking water saving measures seriously, we could see demand exceeding supply as soon as 2020. With another scorching summer just around the corner, South Africans will need to be especially careful when it comes to saving water.

In our country the destructive effects of the World Wars are still prevailing, as was evidenced by the poisoning of innocent diners at the V&A Waterfront last week.

The Save Mapungubwe Coalition Group in co-operation with Green Renaissance is on a mission to prevent any further development of the intended opencast and underground coal mine that is to be located near Mapungubwe.

Many South Africans disagree with this decision. Intellectual and writer Vele 'Christopher' Neluvhalani believes that on a fundamental level, people have always been connected to the earth, visible by the traces they leave behind, like the ancient rock art on the sandstone outcrops in Mapungubwe. In July this year the South African government granted Australian owned mining company Limpopo Coal, a subsidiary of Coal of Africa Limited (CoAL) a series of permits to construct a large opencast coal mine in this ancient cultural landscape.

The Save Mapungubwe Coalition Group in co-operation with Green Renaissance is on a mission to prevent any further development of the intended opencast and underground coal mine that is to be located near Mapungubwe.

There are a number of sacred places in South Africa. Mapungubwe is one such place.
It is a World Heritage Site, the site of the earliest Southern African Kingdom, a National Park and a Transfrontier Conservation Area.

An offence to our ancestors

Neluvhalani feels a deep connection to this ancient place, because his ancestors lived there thousands of years before him. He is bound to the area not only by tradition, but when he visits there and climbs to the top of Mapungubwe hill, he feels he has returned home.

However, this new mining activity will change all of this. That's because for Neluvhalani 'it would be an offence to our ancestors to start mining in the area.'

Neluvhalani was involved in the reburying of his ancestors' remains at Mapungubwe, after they were recently reclaimed from a museum collection and restored to their rightful place.

'Once we tamper with Mapungubwe we will be tampering with the past,' says Neluvhalani, who feels that these ties to our ancient places, like Mapungubwe, compel us to prevent them from being compromised.  'Everyone in South Africa should be united in helping preserve Mapungubwe'.

Mapungubwe was the capital city of a flourishing African kingdom 1 000 years ago and was one of 24 sites around the world added to UNESCO's World Heritage List in 2004. It is a natural treasure holding the history of 50 000 years of human development and contains priceless archaeological and paleontological treasures.

Cultural landscape valuable to SA's history

The area encompassed by the Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape World Heritage Site includes rock art sites, Early, Middle and Later Stone Age sites and Iron Age sites and reflects Southern Africa's complex history. This is why the area has been declared a 'Cultural Landscape' and informs us about the long history of human interaction in this part of the world.

The information held by Mapungubwe is important to all of us, because like the people at Mapungubwe, we are facing various social and environmental crises today. People in this area interacted, co-operated and fought with one another long before South Africa was colonised, and understanding the history held here can shape the way that we interact with one another today.

The Coalition Group believes that mining should be conducted in a responsible manner and not within an area where there are better, sustainable options for land use. The group, which consists of local community members and experts within the heritage and conservation fields, further believe that certain areas should not be considered for mining, where such activities threaten the integrity of irreplaceable South African natural and cultural heritage.
 
The Coalition Group consists of a number of civil society organisations, namely:

• the Association of Southern African Professional Archaeologists (ASAPA),
• BirdLife South Africa (BLSA),
• the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT),
• the Mapungubwe Action Group (MAG),
• the Peace Parks Foundation (PPF),
• the Wilderness Foundation South Africa (WFSA), and
• the World Wide Fund for Nature (South Africa) (WWF).

The group is currently appealing the mining right granted by the Department of Mineral Resources as well as the associated approval of the Environmental Management Programme. They launched interdict proceedings to stop CoAL from carrying on any mining or related operations on the Vele site, lodged a notice of intention to appeal the environmental authorisation granted to CoAL by the Department of Environmental Affairs in the first s.24G application for rectification of illegal activities and lodged an appeal against the water use licence granted to Limpopo Coal in March 2011.

CoAL not meeting environmental standards

CoAL initially applied for a mining license in March 2010, but in August 2010 it was forced to halt activity when development operations did not meet the standards of the National Environmental Management Act, with several regulations being transgressed and insufficient consultation with affected parties.

CoAL was then required to pay a $1.3 million fine to the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) for these environmental contraventions. Other sources state that after activities were stopped CoAL submitted two section rectification applications and paid a R9.25m administrative fine in May 2010.

At a press briefing on 20 July 2011 in Pretoria, Fundisile Mkhetheni, Deputy Director General of the DEA, said that emotions should be set aside in dealing with biodiversity issues. The DEA said that all legal and procedural requirements had been met and that the mine would have a positive economic spin-off for the province and South Africa, after environmental authorisation had been granted for opencast coal mining at the Vele Colliery.

At this press briefing, the DEA attempted to mitigate all negative impacts of mining coal near the Mapungubwe National Park, and made an assurance that monitoring and evaluation would take place at the area between the mine and the national park. The DEA confirmed that roads were already built at the site, and further indicated that the company would have to abide by special conditions due to the project's proximity to the park.

The Vele colliery construction phase is said to take 6-9 months, and it is anticipated that this will produce an initial one million tons of coal per year, increasing to over five million tons a year over a 25-year life-of-mine.

Nick Hilterman, chairman of the Mapungubwe Action Group, says it will appeal against the decision to the high court if necessary. "We do not believe that this mine should be there in the first place," Hilterman has said.

For more information, contact the Endangered Wildlife Trust Media Office at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 011 372 3600. Or watch a film with Vele Neluvhalani's views on Mapungubwe (see below).

Find out more about the campaign to Save Mapungubwe. Join the Save Mapungubwe community on Facebook.

Although winter drought has detrimental effects on some parts of the world, it gives us the opportunity to be creative and explore solar technology.

Enough solar energy falls on the earth's surface every 70 minutes as humankind can use each year, and delivers reliable power without any fuel or significant storage costs.

All the world's major religions share one great belief: that we as humans need to cherish and protect the earth we live on. We are, however, failing in our task. This is a good reason for religions to unite in a common commitment to change, and this is what's happening.

Together with a set of stamps on 12 August 2011 celebrating six kinds of nutritious, easy-to-grow vegetables, the SA Post Office will issue a free recipe booklet containing recipes that feature each of the vegetables as the main ingredient.

Prolonged drought, aseasonal cold spells and extreme temperature highs in occasional years all negatively impact farmers by reducing agricultural production through a loss of livestock or crops. What then, are the possible impacts of global climate change; which predicts temperature increases of between ~ 2 to 4oC and more variable rainfall by the end of the 21st century?

Composting is the ideal winter activity. While the garden is resting, you can be busy preparing fresh nutrients, a concoction of vitality to add to the garden during the growing season. I like to add compost in two different ways: firstly, with new gardens I dig in a lot of compost before planting. As we saw in the last article, this improves the consistency of both clay and sandy soil types. Secondly, I add compost around the plants by placing it on the top of the garden throughout the growing season. This acts as an insulating mulch and the nutrients seep into the soil and feed the plants.

Where have you gone compost rats,
scavengers of the heap unearthing the germ?
Where have you gone with your furred brown backs
and your furred buff fronts exposed
as you climbed the mesh surround?

August is women's month and so we are looking for women who work hard every day and still get very little recognition. Who better to fit this bill than domestic workers? And they play such a powerful role in how a house is run and managed. That's why we were chuffed to find out about Green Touch, who is teaching domestic workers how to green up the homes they manage and create awareness in those families. This is such a good idea!

recycling for the environment
Plastic bottles take hundreds years to biodegrade in landfill. In Nigeria millions of plastic bottles are dumped into waterways and landfill each year causing pollution, erosion, irrigation blockages and health problems.

For too long, our leaders have denied and delayed, compromised and caved. That era must come to an end: it's time to get moving on the climate crisis. On 24 September, Moving Planet will be a day for all of us across the world to put our demands for climate action into motion - marching, biking, skating - calling for the world to go beyond fossil fuels.