THE NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT BILL

Issued by: Government Communications (GCIS)

PRESENTATION TO THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF THE NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT BILL, MINISTER Z. PALLO JORDAN, 21 SEPTEMBER 1998.

Madam Speaker,

Honourable Members,

Comrades,

Every generation inherits the obligation to interact with the environment in a manner that will ensure that development serves its own members and those of future generations.

But in South Africa, our generation faces a further challenge because our Constitution obliges us and all organs of state to respect, protect, promote and fulfil the constitutional rights, and especially the social, economic and environmental rights of our citizens, in a manner that will:

• promote the achievement of equality; and
• improve the situation of the most vulnerable amongst our citizens who were the victims of the unjust discriminatory practises of the past.

The National Environmental Management Bill forms part of the new body of laws and standards in South Africa and the world.. I believe that this bill has what it takes to lead the DEAT into the 21st century.

The proper allocation and management of our natural resources are key concerns of this government. During the course of 1998 this legislature passed the National Water Act and the National Forests Act. Parliament is poised to discuss new minerals, agriculture and heritage laws and a land tenure rights law. There are possibilities that the Development Facilitation Act of 1995 may be revisited before the forthcoming elections.

Within my own department new laws on

• clean air,
• integrated pollution and waste management,
• protected areas and biodiversity conservation, and
• coastal zone management

are being prepared for consideration after the next years elections.

Our environmental laws and other laws relating to our management of the environment are fragmented. The task of reviewing, integrating, consolidating and weeding out the undesirable is an ongoing process. This bill makes important advances in managing the (presently) fragmented performance of environmental functions among various government departments, both horizontally and vertically. In the light of the cooperation we pioneered with other departments in the preparation of the white paper on which this bill is based and in the drafting of the bill itself, I am confident that we are, in practice, doing what the authors of the Constitution had in mind when they wrote the chapter on cooperative government.

The National Environmental Management Bill provides the legislative foundation and framework by which government will ensure the protection, promotion and fulfilment of the rights entrenched in section 24 of our Bill of Rights. It contains provisions that:

• give people access to the judiciary to protect their rights,
• will ensure the state or any other transgressor may be held responsible and legally liable for costs arising from harm to the environment owing to their actions or failure to take action,
• ensure compliance with legislation,
• promote and give effect to cooperative government as envisaged in 41(2) of the Constitution.

Through the NEMB government has, for the first time, legislation that sets environmenal governance on a course that will ensure sound and consistent decision-making and management of the environment across government. The NEMB removes uncertainties about:

• the principal basis for decision making,
• cooperative government instruments and arrangements,
• regulatory approach and compliance mechanisms,
• norms and standards for integrated environmental management, and
• mechanisms that will afford civil society opportunities for involvement in environmental governance, access to information and the judiciary to protect their environmental rights.

The principles in Chapter 1 of the Bill reflect government's commitment to achieving development that is socially, environmentally and economically sustainable. These principles serve as a guideline for:

• decision-making in managing the environment and exercising environment-related functions;
• conciliation and environmental conflict management; and
• the interpretation, administration and implementation of the law.

Madam Speaker,

Six months ago we published a White Paper on Environmental Management Policy, and today that policy is being translated into law. The development of policy and the drafting of the law were processes involving extensive consultation that added value to the final product. I owe a debt of gratitude to the following: Firstly

• the hardworking officials in my Department,
• the officials of the environmental portfolios in the nine provincial governments,
• the members of the reference group chaired by Deputy Minister Mokaba,
• the drafting team,

the NGOs whose pressure has kept government on its toes,

• the environmental and constitutional lawyers,
• NEDLAC,
• the MINMEC for environmental affairs,
• the 7 DGs who met every Friday for 2 months,
• the South African public for their written and oral submissions,
• the Portfolio Committee under the able leadership of its inimitable chair, Comrade Gwen Mahlangu,
• and the former Acting Director-General of my Department, Dr Francois Hanekom, who managed the entire process under very trying personal circumstances.

I have had fruitful discussions last week with the Select Committee of the NCOP about the contents of the Bill. That Committee is keen to fulfil its important oversight function as soon as possible.

I believe that in the NEMB we have a law that represents very significant and innovative measures towards sound and effective environmental management. This law builds on the constitution and gives legal effect to the White Paper on Environmental Management Policy. It is a product of our young democracy and a critical step in the transformation process to create a society committed to sustainable development with greater equity and environmental justice. The Bill creates a fitting enabling legal framework for the DEAT to lead all organs of state in all spheres along the path of sustainable development into the new millennium.