Staff Reporter
HIGH Court Judge Reinhard Tötemeyer has granted relief to conservancies in the Kunene Region, halting mining activities carried out by one Timoteus Mashuna in the Sorris Sorris conservation area, which hosts the endangered black rhino species. The judge said that only about 3,500 remain globally, with Namibia holding close to one-third of the global population.
The western Kunene rhinos are the largest population of free-roaming black rhinos anywhere in the world and are classified as a Key-1 population by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Mashuna holds a total of nine mining claims in the area. Another court, presided over by Judge Esi Schimming-Chase, had previously also halted the mining activities of one Ottilie Ndimulunde, who was conducting mining in the same area.
The application against mining activities was brought by the Doro !Nawas Conservancy, Uibasen Twyfelfontein Conservancy, and #Aodaman Traditional Authority in conjunction with Ultimate Safaris (Pty) Ltd, while the respondents include Mashuna, the Environmental Commissioner, and the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism, among others.
On 24 August 2024, Acting Judge Miller issued an interim interdict against Mashuna, restraining him from engaging in any mining or related activities on his mining claims pending the determination of a complaint lodged with the Environmental Commissioner and the Minister of Environment, Forestry and Tourism, which claimed that Mashuna’s environmental clearance certificate was obtained irregularly.
The judge explained that evidence was presented showing that large-scale mining in an adjacent conservancy since 2021 has caused the migration of black rhinos from the area and that three rhinos have also gone missing.
“In September 2025, a further urgent application was launched against Mashuna in order to hold him in contempt of court for violating the aforesaid order of Miller, AJ. This was after the applicants became aware of certain intended blasting activities on the first respondent’s mining claims. This application was heard on 18 September 2025 and was struck from the roll for lack of urgency on 19 September 2025 by Usiku J. Thereafter, the present urgent application was brought after further blasting activities occurred on 26 September 2025 at Mashuna’s mining site,” Judge Tötemeyer said.
It is further alleged that the conservancies, on 18 September 2025, became aware that the order of Acting Judge Miller (which gave them protection by way of an interim interdict pending that Section 42 decision) no longer gave them such protection by virtue of the Section 42 decision having been taken.
This necessitated the seeking of urgent relief on the basis that the order of Miller, of 24 August 2024, should be interpreted to also give them protection pending the finalisation of the current review application in respect of both the environmental clearance certificate and mining claims granted to Mashuna.
The judge added that Mashuna tried to downplay the effect that his mining activities would have on the rhinos, while Uri-Khob of the Save the Rhino Trust, however, gave evidence that the effects which large-scale mining activities had on the rhinos in the area of the //Huab Conservancy are likely to repeat themselves in the JMA as a result of Mashuna’s activities in that area (specifically blasting).
The judge said that the evidence in this matter suggests that the mining activities, particularly blasting by Mashuna, may have a serious and adverse effect on rhinos within the JMA area.
“Should such rhinos flee (or worse, disappear) from the JMA area, as happened in the nearby conservancy as a result of mining, this may have serious and irreversible consequences for the applicants and their activities,” she said, adding that previous mining activities in the area had not involved heavy machinery or drilling or blasting.
She concluded that mining and tourism are both equally important competing interests in Namibia, but that sight should not be lost of the fact that if the ultimate review succeeds, it will probably be on the basis that the administrative decisions whereby both the environmental clearance certificate and the mining claims were granted were fatally flawed or irregular and thus should not have been granted in the first place.
Photo: Adventure Travel Conservation Fund
