Mapungubwe, one of South Africa’s historic and environmental jewels, is in danger of losing its prestigious World Heritage Site status. Tensions and competing interests between the Department of Mineral Resources and the Department of Environmental Affairs hang over the culturally and environmentally sensitive Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape in Limpopo, on the Zimbabwe and Botswana borders. While the latter department recognises the area as a nature conservation area under its National Environment Management Act, it has failed to protect it from sprawling coal mining activity, with its rival department issuing prospecting and mining rights to London-listed Coal of Africa, prospecting rights to Anglo American‘s coal unit Anglo Coal, and further prospecting rights to Australian company Universal Coal.
See http://www.timeslive.co.za/business/article865844.ece/Mapungubwe-under-threat.