Overview

On 24 June 2026, the Deputy Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Bernice Swarts, opened the National Priority Area Air Quality Summit in Rustenburg, North West Province. The venue was deliberate. Rustenburg sits within the Bojanala Platinum District, one half of the Waterberg-Bojanala Priority Area, the country’s newest declared air quality priority area and one of the regions where the cumulative impact of mining, smelting and processing activity on ambient air quality is most pronounced.

The Summit was convened under the theme “Collective Accountability for Clean Air: Clean Air is Not a Privilege, but a Fundamental Right”. It brought together Members of the Executive Council from North West, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and Gauteng, Waterberg and Bojanala municipal leadership, national, provincial and local government officials, industry representatives, academics, researchers, civil society organisations, community leaders and the Clean Air Fund, spanning South Africa’s three declared air quality Priority Areas: the Highveld Priority Area, the Vaal Triangle Airshed Priority Area, and the Waterberg-Bojanala Priority Area.

For mining right holders operating in or near these Priority Areas, particularly in the platinum, chrome and coal sectors, the Summit’s themes and commitments point to a period of intensified regulatory attention, new compliance obligations under recently enacted dust control regulations, and considerably greater public visibility of emissions and dustfall performance.

Background

The Priority Area Framework Under Nemaqa

Section 18 of the National Environmental Management: Air Quality Act 39 of 2004 (NEMAQA) empowers the Minister to declare an area a national Priority Area where ambient air quality standards are, or may be, exceeded, or where any other situation exists which may cause a significant negative impact on air quality in the area. Once declared, a Priority Area must be governed by a Priority Area Air Quality Management Plan (PAAQMP), developed in consultation with affected national, provincial and local government, industry and communities, setting out the measures required to bring air quality within acceptable limits. South Africa currently has three declared Priority Areas. The Highveld Priority Area and the Vaal Triangle Airshed Priority Area have been in place for some years and have generated substantial implementation experience, both positive and cautionary. The Waterberg-Bojanala Priority Area is the most recent addition, and its regulatory framework, including its PAAQMP, is still being developed. The Deputy Minister was explicit that one of the Summit’s core purposes was to apply lessons learnt from the Highveld Priority Area’s implementation to the preparation of the Vaal Triangle and Waterberg-Bojanala plans.

Rustenburg, Bojanala And The Mining Backdrop

The Bojanala Platinum District Municipality, within which Rustenburg falls, is home to a significant share of South Africa’s platinum group metals production, alongside chrome mining and associated smelting and processing operations. The Waterberg district in Limpopo, the other component of the Priority Area, hosts extensive coal mining and coal-fired power generation. The declaration of Waterberg-Bojanala as a Priority Area reflects official recognition that the cumulative emissions and dustfall associated with mining, beneficiation and related transport and processing activity in these districts, together with domestic fuel burning and vehicle emissions, are contributing to air quality that falls short of national standards.

Convening the 2026 Summit in Rustenburg itself, rather than in Pretoria or another administrative centre, underscores that government regards the mining sector as a central stakeholder in, and contributor to, the air quality challenges the Priority Area framework is designed to address.

The 2026 Summit: Key Themes And Commitments

The Summit’s programme identified several themes with direct relevance to mining operators in the Priority Areas.

1. Building regulatory capacity: the Summit focused on building technical capacity among government institutions and stakeholders to operate within the new Priority Area regulatory framework, particularly for the Vaal Triangle and Waterberg-Bojanala Priority Areas as their management plans are finalised.
2. Applying lessons from the Highveld: delegates assessed lessons learnt from the implementation of the Highveld Priority Area Air Quality Management Plan, with a view to better preparing the Vaal Triangle Airshed and Waterberg-Bojanala Priority Areas for the compliance and enforcement challenges the Highveld experience has surfaced.
3. Proactive dust management: a significant portion of the Summit addressed the implementation of the recently enacted National Dust Control Regulations, with government describing an intention to shift dust management from a reactive approach, responding to complaints and exceedances after the fact, to a proactive one built on monitoring, planning and early intervention.
4. The Clean Air Fund partnership: the Deputy Minister acknowledged the department’s partnership with the Clean Air Fund, a philanthropic funder that has supported Priority Area Summits since 2024, deployed 200 low-cost air quality sensors across Gauteng, North West and the Free State during 2025, and is working with government to commission further sensors nationally. The Fund also supports municipal outreach and awareness programmes, PAAQMP development, and health-impact research conducted by the South African Medical Research Council.
5. Community monitoring and voice: government committed to expanding the South African Air Quality Information System (SAAQIS), improving online reporting of pollution incidents and complaints, and rolling out community air quality dialogues across all Priority Areas, with information to be communicated in all official languages.

The Summit did not shy away from acknowledging shortcomings. The Deputy Minister recognised concerns raised by communities regarding emissions from industrial activity, domestic fuel burning, transport and waste burning, as well as concerns raised by civil society regarding the pace of implementation, transparency, compliance and accountability in the existing Priority Areas. Separately, a report highlighted by Green Building Africa around the same period estimated the annual economic cost of air pollution to South Africa at approximately US$52 billion, a figure likely to add further political and fiscal weight behind accelerated enforcement in the Priority Areas.

Practical Significance For The Mining Sector

Right holders, financiers and investors with mining or processing operations in the Priority Areas, and particularly in the Waterberg-Bojanala Priority Area given its proximity to the Summit and its status as the newest declared area, should take note of the following.

1. Tighter Atmospheric Emission Licence conditions are likely: as the Waterberg-Bojanala PAAQMP is finalised drawing on Highveld and Vaal Triangle experience, expect Atmospheric Emission Licence conditions for mines, smelters and processing plants in Bojanala and Waterberg to be revised or tightened to align with the new plan’s emission reduction targets.
2. Proactive dust control obligations apply now, not only on enforcement: the National Dust Control Regulations require monitoring, exceedance response and remediation on an ongoing basis. Mines with tailings storage facilities, haul roads, crushers, stockpiles and other dust-generating infrastructure should review dust management plans against the proactive standard government has signalled, rather than waiting for a compliance notice.
3. Real-time public monitoring raises compliance and reputational exposure: the Clean Air Fund’s low-cost sensor network and the improved SAAQIS complaints system mean emissions and dustfall events near mining operations are increasingly visible to regulators, communities and the media in close to real time, increasing the likelihood of complaints, compliance notices and reputational consequences following exceedances.
4. Community engagement expectations are widening: planned departmental community air quality dialogues across all Priority Areas suggest that engagement obligations may, in practice, extend beyond existing Social and Labour Plan and environmental authorisation consultation requirements. Mining companies operating in Bojanala should anticipate more frequent and more structured engagement demands from communities and civil society organisations on air quality specifically.
5. The economic cost narrative will inform enforcement priorities: estimates placing the annual cost of air pollution to the South African economy in the tens of billions of US dollars strengthen the political and fiscal case for prioritising enforcement and compliance timelines in the Priority Areas, including for industries, such as mining, identified as significant contributors.
6. Funding and capacity constraints remain a live risk: government has been candid that implementation of existing Priority Area plans has been uneven and that civil society continues to raise concerns about the pace of compliance and accountability. Operators should not assume that heightened regulatory expectations will be matched by proportionate increases in departmental monitoring or enforcement capacity in the near term, which in practice places the primary compliance burden on operators themselves.

How Bishop Fraser Attorneys Can Assist

Air quality regulation is an increasingly active area of environmental compliance risk for mining right holders operating in, or considering investments within, South Africa’s declared Priority Areas. Bishop Fraser Attorneys advises clients on:

• Atmospheric Emission Licences: applications, amendments, renewals, compliance audits and appeals against licence conditions or enforcement action under NEMAQA.
• Priority Area compliance: the interpretation and practical application of Priority Area Air Quality Management Plans, including how PAAQMP obligations interact with mining right conditions, environmental authorisations and Social and Labour Plans.
• Dust control compliance: structuring and reviewing dust management plans, monitoring programmes and exceedance response protocols to meet the proactive standard required under the National Dust Control Regulations.
• Regulatory engagement: engagement with the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, provincial environmental departments and municipal air quality officers on compliance timelines, licence variations and enforcement matters.
• Community and stakeholder engagement: structuring consultation processes that meet the widening expectations signalled by government’s planned community air quality dialogues, while managing the associated legal and reputational risk.
• Enforcement defence: responding to compliance notices, directives and other enforcement action taken under NEMAQA in respect of emissions or dustfall exceedances.

The 2026 National Priority Area Air Quality Summit was, in substance, a signal that government intends to move from planning to implementation in the Waterberg-Bojanala Priority Area, and to do so under closer public scrutiny than has applied to the Highveld and Vaal Triangle Priority Areas to date. Mining operators in Rustenburg, the wider Bojanala district and the Waterberg coalfields would be well advised to review their emissions and dust compliance posture now, ahead of the finalisation of the new Priority Area’s management plan.