On 10th January, 2012 the MPA at last received the judgement from the review hearing which had taken place in the Mafikeng High court on 4th August, 2011. We were disappointed but not surprised, given the Judge’s generally unsympathetic attitude towards the MPA’s case, that she dismissed our application for review of the North-West province’s post-hoc approval for the Kgaswane Country Lodge, a 57-bedroom upmarket hotel which had been illegally constructed inside the Magaliesberg Protected Environment, and of the MEC’s subsequent dismissal of the MPA’s appeal against this approval. What did surprise us was the Judge’s award of costs against the MPA.

In July 2008, Kevin Gill and Vincent Carruthers, both members of the Magaliesberg Protection Association (MPA) who were checking the conservation status of the Magaliesberg from a Bateleurs flight along the range, noticed a massive new development that was taking place inside the Magaliesberg Protected Environment (MPE) at Olifantsnek.