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Yonge Nawe Environmental ‘Action’ Group, as the name implies, is tasked with the responsibility of advocacy and raising awareness about environmental issues for individuals, communities, civil society and government to take ‘action’ to ensure a well-sustained environment for future Swazi generations. Legal government bodies, such as the Swaziland Environmental Authority (SEA) and the Swaziland National Trust Commission (SNTC) are looked upon for the enforcement of environmental protection legislation and management of protected areas in Swaziland, respectively. However when these bodies fail to uphold the mandate entrusted, this responsibility lies squarely with organisations such as Yonge Nawe to enforce the law. Yonge Nawe created history in Swaziland by filing an urgent application in the high court, creating the first ever "Green Court" case.

Mlawula A16 Road Construction 
In 2001, appointed custodian of land held in trust for the Swazi nation including all official Swazi game reserves, the SNTC, started an illegal multi-million-development project within one of its protected areas, Mlawula Nature Reserve. Funded by the Government of Taiwan, the project included the construction of a new 20-rodavel camp at the summit of the Lubombo Mountains and a new road, called the A16 access road, from the top to the bottom of the mountains. 

The EIA Process
A project of this magnitude requires that an Environmental Impact Assessment be conducted and an environmental compliance certificate issued before the project is implemented. In this strand, the SEA requested that the project be subject to this law. However, before either of the projects had acquired an environmental compliance certificate from the SEA, the SNTC had contracted engineers that had begun working on the new road. [A recommendation by local independent consultants that construction be stalled until the draft Mlawula Management Plan was finalised and adopted as part of the SNTC’s operating procedures, also went unnoticed]. The SEA remained silent thereafter, and what could only be deemed as one of the worst engineering and environmental disasters in Swaziland, already advanced at a steady pace.

Action: SEA and SNTC
The abandoned EIA process for the Mlawula road construction project classified the project in the third category. This meant that the project had to undergo the complete EIA procedure, including a Comprehensive Mitigation Plan designed to mitigate against environmental impacts identified in the EIA scoping process. Furthermore, both EIA and CMP reports had to be made readily available for public comment before any construction began. By overlooking these procedures and their enforcement, both the SNTC and the SEA violated the Environmental Audit and Assessment Review Regulations (EAARR) of 2000, (Part C; articles 5,6 in the Simplified Version) which outline the entire EIA process. This raised attention to the environmental plunder being instituted by the very custodians of the environment. 

Yonge Nawe’s Reaction
In June this year, having made efforts to ensure enforcement of the EAARR of 2000 by the SEA to no avail, Yonge Nawe, acted. Citing the Ministry of Tourism, Environment and Communications, the SEA and the SNTC as respondents, she applied for an order in the High Court of Swaziland, that would restrain further construction on the Mlawula A16 road until full EIA procedure was complied to. 

People’s Participation
To Yonge Nawe, this is a principle call. People’s participation is essential to any project purporting development. The only window allowing people’s participation in development projects is the EIA process. This process allows interested and affected parties to have a say in any proposed project. This reveals any unrealised or potential impacts of the proposed project, which must be mitigated to make sure that a healthy and sustainable environment persists. 

People’s participation in EIA’s, can only be assured if the bodies given the authority to supervise and enforce the fullness of this process, do so. When they fail to do so, it is not just people’s participation that is forfeited, but ultimately a healthy environment and sustainable development are compromised, usually for the sake of profits. And this is what is worth fighting for. If the legal bodies entrusted with caring for the environment and its people ignore their responsibility, who then shall be responsible for them? The case still continues and Yonge Nawe is represented by Lindiwe Khumalo Matse.