Rural residents in KwaZulu-Natal have scored another legal victory against the Johannesburg-based Tendele coal mining company, winning an interim court interdict that compels the company to cease bulldozing community land with immediate effect.

A Pietermaritzburg High Court judge has ruled in favour of the Mfolozi Community Environmental Justice Organisation (Mcejo) and ordered Tendele to halt "all mining and mining-related activities" pending the outcome of a fresh round of legal hostilities set to resume on June 9.

The ruling was made by acting Judge Paul Wallis during an urgent court hearing on Friday, May 26.

The community group argued that Tendele had jumped the gun by sending bulldozers and other heavy earthmoving equipment on to community land last week before the legality of its mining plans was adjudicated in court.

Tendele (a subsidiary of the Petmin group) plans to dig three new mining pits, which would lead to dozens of families being evicted permanently from their homes and land near the town of Mtubatuba.

Mcejo has contested the plans in a series of court battles that began in 2018. Last year, Pretoria High Court Judge Noluntu Bam ruled that Tendele's mining rights in the area were invalid and compared the company's behaviour to an "unbridled horse" with little respect for the law.

Nevertheless, Bam gave the company a second chance to comply with environmental impact assessment laws and to obtain community consent in terms...