South Africa: UN Development Agency Slammed for Support of 'Flawed' Chinese Industrial Mega-Project in Limpopo

A map showing the Vhembe district (in red) in South Africa's Limpopo province.
analysis

Representatives of a group of civil society organisations are calling for the United Nations Development Programme to retract a Memorandum of Understanding signed with the Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone that could contribute up to 10% of South Africa's total emissions from all sectors combined -- and threaten water security from Limpopo to Zimbabwe.

Representatives of a group of civil society organisations have registered their discontent -- by way of an open letter -- with a decision by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone (MMSEZ) in Limpopo.

They slammed the MoU on the basis that the joint China-South Africa industrial mega-project -- located in the Unesco Vhembe Biosphere Reserve -- "violates every principle of sustainable development which the UNDP purports to serve".

They added that it "lends this fundamentally flawed project undeserved credibility that is being used to attract investors and deflect criticism".

Our Burning Planet's Kevin Bloom has previously reported that the MMSEZ is a proposed China-funded 8,000ha metallurgical cluster in the baobab-filled Limpopo River Valley, which would be powered by its own 3,000MW coal-fired plant, draw water from drought- and famine-stricken Zimbabwe, and generally lay waste...

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