LEG2601 Assignment 1 Due 24 August 2026

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA
College of Law


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LEG2601: Legal Aspects of
Environmental Management
Assignment 01 | Semester 2, 2026

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LEG2601
Module Code:
Legal Aspects of Environmental Manage-
Module Name:
ment
Environmental Authorisation, EIA and Ad-
Essay Topic:
ministrative Remedies: the Green Horizon
Developments Scenario
01
Assignment Number:
24 August 2026
Due Date:




Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for Le-
gal Aspects of Environmental Management, UNISA 2026

,UNISA | LEG2601 Legal Aspects of Environmental Management



Question 1: Environmental Authorisation and the Purpose of an Environmental Impact
Assessment

Green Horizon Developments (Pty) Ltd’s proposed shopping centre, fuel station, parking
areas, access roads and waste disposal site near a wetland outside Polokwane fall squarely
within the category of activities that trigger the environmental authorisation regime created
by the National Environmental Management Act.1


1.1 The Trigger: Listed Activities under NEMA


Section 24 of the Constitution guarantees everyone the right to an environment that is not
harmful to health or well-being, and to have the environment protected through reasonable
legislative measures that secure ecologically sustainable development.2 NEMA gives effect
to this right by prohibiting the commencement of any activity identified in a listing notice
unless the competent authority has granted environmental authorisation.3 Commencing a
listed activity without authorisation is a criminal offence.4

Each element of Green Horizon’s proposal falls within Listing Notices 1, 2 or 3 published un-
der the 2014 EIA Regulations. Shopping centres and their associated parking exceed the
floor-area thresholds for retail and commercial development listed under these notices, fuel
stations are separately listed because of the storage of hazardous substances, new access
roads constitute linear activities affecting the environment along their route,5 and a waste dis-
posal site is a listed waste management activity regulated concurrently under NEMA and the
National Environmental Management: Waste Act.6 The proximity to a wetland is decisive on
its own: activities within the regulated area of a watercourse, including a 500-metre radius of
a wetland boundary, are listed activities regardless of the nature of the development, because
the term 'environment' in NEMA has been interpreted to include a wetland.7 A disturbance
of the wetland’s bed, banks or flow would also constitute a water use requiring a licence un-
der section 21 of the National Water Act, an authorisation that runs alongside, and does not

1
National Environmental Management Act 107 of 1998 (NEMA), s 24.
2
Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, s 24.
3
NEMA, s 24(1); Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations, 2014 (GN R982 in GG 38282 of 4 December
2014), reg 2.
4
NEMA, s 24F.
5
Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations, 2014, reg 1 (definition of 'linear activity').
6
National Environmental Management: Waste Act 59 of 2008, s 20.
7
Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations, 2014, Listing Notice 1, GN R983, item 12; A du Plessis and W
Nel, 'Developing a strategy for efficient environmental authorisation of activities affecting wetlands in South
Africa: towards a wise-use approach' (2020) 23 PELJ 1, 3.


Page 2 of 19

, UNISA | LEG2601 Legal Aspects of Environmental Management


replace, the NEMA process.8

Proposed development identified



Screen against Listing Notices 1–3




No
Activity listed? No EA required


Yes



Appoint EAP, apply for EA



Construction may lawfully commence


Figure 1: Screening pathway for the Green Horizon development under NEMA



1.2 The Purpose of Conducting an Environmental Impact Assessment


An environmental impact assessment is defined in the 2014 EIA Regulations as a systematic
process of identifying, assessing and reporting on the environmental impacts associated with
an activity, and includes both the basic assessment and the scoping and EIA procedures.9
The purpose of the assessment is not merely bureaucratic. It operationalises the precaution-
ary and preventative principles set out in section 2 of NEMA, which require that a risk-averse
and cautious approach be adopted and that negative environmental impacts be anticipated
and prevented, or minimised and remedied, before they occur.10 By compelling the developer
to investigate alternatives, assess cumulative impacts and disclose findings to the public
before a decision is taken, the EIA converts environmental protection from an after-the-fact
remedy into a precondition for development.

The Constitutional Court confirmed the centrality of this preventive purpose in Fuel Retailers
Association of Southern Africa v Director-General: Environmental Management, Department
of Agriculture, Conservation and Environment, Mpumalanga Province, holding that environ-
mental concerns do not commence and end once a development is approved, and that the

8
National Water Act 36 of 1998, s 21(c) and (i).
9
Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations, 2014, reg 1.
10
NEMA, s 2(4)(a)(vii)–(viii).


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