Drawing the Short Straw: Regulating Plastic Pollution in South Africa

by | Nov 15, 2020 | SAJELP, SAJELP 2019

Drawing the Short Straw: Regulating Plastic Pollution in South Africa

Author Olivia Rumble

ISSN: 2616-8499
Affiliations:
Source: South African Journal of Environmental Law and Policy 2019, p. 102 – 145

Abstract

Many parts of South Africa’s inland and coastal areas are awash with plastic pollution. At present, government appears to be focusing its efforts on four priorities to address plastic pollution, namely: the plastic bag levy, extended producer responsibility measures, the potential ban of problematic plastic products and domestic waste service provision. This analysis seeks to critically analyse the approach adopted in relation to these priorities with a view to proposing refinements and alternatives, within the broader context of the nuanced statutory mechanisms available to manage waste under the National Environmental Management: Waste Act 59 of 2008 (Waste Act). It does so by attempting to delineate the primary causes and contributing factors to plastic pollution; outlining the existing regulatory landscape, and interrogating these priorities and the manner of their application within that context. It concludes that whilst some traction has been made, some ten years after the Waste Act’s promulgation, a lack of policy coherence and ambition, knowledge gaps, disputes relating to financial models, and uncertainty about the socio-economic implications of measures are hampering the timeous implementation of much needed statutory measures.

Twenty Years of The Bamako Convention: Recounting Africa’s Waste Trade Experience and Its Journey to Toxic Waste Freedom

by | Nov 15, 2020 | SAJELP, SAJELP 2019

Twenty Years of The Bamako Convention: Recounting Africa’s Waste Trade Experience and Its Journey to Toxic Waste Freedom

Author Nnamdi SS Umenze

ISSN: 2616-8499
Affiliations:
Source: South African Journal of Environmental Law and Policy 2019, p. 146 – 184

Abstract

Concerned by the reckless dumping of Western toxic waste in Africa and the associated environmental, health and social problems, 12 African countries negotiated and adopted the Bamako Convention on the Ban into Africa and the Control of Transboundary Movement and Management of Hazardous Wastes within Africa (Bamako Convention), because the Basel Convention, a multilateral agreement, failed to address the concerns of the developing countries regarding the toxic waste  trade. The Bamako Convention came into force in 1998 with the objectives of eradicating all forms of hazardous waste importation into Africa, minimising waste production, and regulating transboundary shipments and disposal of waste among member states, but it remains to be seen whether these objectives have been achieved after 20 years.

Mining in the Mabola Protected Environment

by | Nov 15, 2020 | SAJELP, SAJELP 2019

Mining in the Mabola Protected Environment

Author Amanda Mkhonza

ISSN: 2616-8499
Affiliations:
Source: South African Journal of Environmental Law and Policy 2019, p. 185 – 200

Abstract

Soon after declaring the Mabola Protected Environment in terms of the National Environmental Management: Protected Areas Act, permission to undertake coal mining activities within this environmentally sensitive and ecologically important area was granted by the Ministers responsible for the environment and mineral resources in terms of the same Act. This statutory anomaly – that allows for mining within protected environments – sits at the heart of this case and is interpreted by our judiciary for the first time. The Mabola judgment crystalises the sequence of authorisations required for mining within protected environments whilst clearly distinguishing the roles of the relevant Ministers when called to act as custodians of South Africa’s protected environments.

Promoting the Right to Environmental Justice Through the Supreme Court’s Liberalisation of Locus Standi in Nigeria

by | Nov 15, 2020 | SAJELP, SAJELP 2019

Promoting the Right to Environmental Justice Through the Supreme Court’s Liberalisation of Locus Standi in Nigeria

Authors John Oluwole A Akintayo and David Tarh-Akong Eyongndi

ISSN: 2616-8499
Affiliations:
Source: South African Journal of Environmental Law and Policy 2019, p. 201

Abstract

This note, which uses desk-based research methodology, reviews the Supreme Court’s decision in Centre for Oil Pollution Watch v N.N.P.C. by focusing on the philosophical basis and development of locus standi in Nigeria, its effects on adjudication, and the effect of the judgment in advancing environmental justice and public interest litigation in Nigeria. Locus standi ensures that only a person who has a genuine legal interest can set in motion a judicial process either to protect the interest or seek redress where the interest has been infringed upon. Locus standi protects the courts from being accessed by busybodies or meddlesome interlopers, and it relates to the complainant and not the complaint. This note argues for the promotion of environmental justice through public interest litigation based on the provisions of the Fundamental Rights Enforcement Procedure Rules (FREPR) 2009. Against this backdrop, the note argues that the judgment is a welcome development and urges other public-spirited private stakeholders, particularly in the Niger Delta Region (NDR) where there is brazen environmental degradation resulting from the activities of multinational oil companies, to explore it to forestall environmental degradation from ravaging the region. The decision provides judicial approval of the liberalisation of locus standi by the FREPR 2009.

A Sin Committed by the (Suspended) SADC Tribunal : the Erosion of State Sovereignty in the SADC Region

by | Sep 27, 2020 | SAYIL, SAYIL 2018

A Sin Committed by the (Suspended) SADC Tribunal: the Erosion of State Sovereignty in the SADC Region

Authors Moses Retselisitsoe Phooko

ISSN: 2521-2583
Affiliations: University of Johannesburg and High Court of South Africa
Source: South African Yearbook of International Law, 2018, p. 1 – 19

Abstract

State sovereignty was once the sacrosanct and unquestionable characteristic of statehood under international law. International law prohibited any form of intervention by one state in the domestic affairs of another state without the latter’s consent. However, this is no longer the position. It appears that state sovereignty is gradually losing its once inviolable character due to the emergence of human rights, subregional organisations and judicial organs such as the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the SADC Tribunal. The aim of this article is to critically discuss the impact of the decisions of the SADC Tribunal on state sovereignty within the context of SADC. I argue that by ratifying the Treaty of the Southern African Development Community (SADC Treaty), SADC member states have given away a certain portion of their sovereignty.