[miningmx.com] — National Treasury is considering the establishment of an environmental tax superfund to pay for the acid mine water crisis.
Treasury’s proposal was submitted on Tuesday during the acid mine water hearings by the portfolio committee for water and environmental affairs.
The presentation and its discussion will however take place on Wednesday, the second day of the hearings.
Treasury has already discussed the matter with the US Trade and Development Agency which operates a similar environmental management superfund.
Henk Coetzee, a geohydrologist at the Council for GeoScience, told the committee that in the US the mining industry pays a small levy towards treating the historical legacy of mining activity.
At this stage it would seem that the South African taxpayer will have to foot the bill, because it would prove difficult to track down the companies that caused the problem.
Government has argued that it would be almost impossible to apply the principle of “polluter pays’.
Although Treasury has allocated R225m towards the problem for the 2013/14 financial year, Johann Claassens of the Trans Caledon Tunnel Authority – who was appointed in February to set up temporary measures to control rising water levels in old gold mines – said it would probably cost closer to R750m to get temporary measures operational.
