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The sulphuric stench that drifted over large parts of Johannesburg last week – described by residents as reeking of “rotten eggs”, “cat urine” and “burning sulphur” – has dissipated.
AIR POLLUTION

“Rotten egg” smell over Joburg highlights toxic air pollution risks

Air pollution in the Highveld Priority Area threatens lives and violates environmental rights, as hydrogen sulphide levels recently spiked over Johannesburg

  • Sheree Bega
9 min read
South Africa’s largest corporate polluters have worked persistently over the past two decades, in public and in private, to derail an effective climate policy response by the government, according to non-profit shareholder activism organisation Just Share.
DEADLY AIR

Legal battle to stop deadly air

The key theme in the air quality case heard in the supreme court of appeal this week focused on holding government and polluters to account

  • Sheree Bega
6 min read
AIR POLLUTION

Sasol’s application for Secunda emission limit for sulphur dioxide falls outside legal framework, say Just Share

The company says it remains committed to ambient air quality improvement and legal compliance

  • Sheree Bega
6 min read
Environment, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Barbara Creecy. (Photo by Ruvan Boshoff/Sunday Times/Gallo Images via Getty Images)
BARBARA CREECY

High court slams Creecy for deadly air that breaches SA’s Constitution

Judge says environment minister’s denial of the harm caused is at odds with science, and gives her a deadline to prescribe long-delayed pollution regulations

  • Sheree Bega
6 min read
The toxic air pollution on the Mpumalanga Highveld is a 50-year-old problem that cannot “miraculously” be fixed overnight, argued the advocate for Barbara Creecy, the minister of forestry, fisheries and the environment. (Photo by Per-Anders Pettersson/Getty Images)
BARBARA CREECY

Right to clean air ‘progressively realisable’ in polluted Mpumalanga Highveld, court hears

State argues dirty air can’t be ‘miraculously’ fixed overnight in final day of proceedings in landmark Deadly Air case

  • Sheree Bega
4 min read
Ten thousand deaths could be avoided every year if the government took action to bring air pollution into compliance with national air quality standards on the Mpumalanga Highveld.
AIR QUALITY ACT

Landmark Deadly Air case: 10 000 deaths annually can be avoided

There is no legal mechanism in place to implement and enforce measures to prevent toxic air pollution in the Highveld

  • Sheree Bega
6 min read
The pollution in Embalenhle near Secunda can be found the world over and is evidence that a warning issued at the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992 has not been heeded.
AIR POLLUTION

UN special rapporteur on the environment joins local air pollution case

The state is facing a court battle about big industry’s emissions and their link to poor health. This is a public health concern and the government must take action to save lives

  • Tony Carnie
7 min read
Stimela: Gold miners, circa 1910. Many of them were, for years, recruited in Mozambique and made the trip to South Africa by train. (FPG/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
CHARLES VAN ONSELEN

Moz miners’ misery unveiled

Migrant workers faced many depredations on their railway trips to and from Mozambique

  • Shaun De Waal
9 min read
Emissions are still climbing. In 2024, global greenhouse gas emissions increased by 2.3%, reaching 57.7 gigatons of CO₂ equivalent — a faster rate of growth than in 2023 and more than four times the annual average of the 2010s.
AIR POLLUTION

NGOs sue government, Ramaphosa over Mpumalanga’s ‘deadly air’

Government is being sued by environmental activist groups who say it is infringing on residents’ right to clean air

  • Rene Robinson
5 min read