BOOK REVIEW

Environmental Law in South Africa. By Jan Glazewski. Durban:

Butterworths: 2000. xii + 918 pp. Price R518-70.

It is not usual for a reviewer to begin by saying that the book under review
is an excellent work that many working in the field covered by it have
been waiting for with great anticipation for some time. This is the case
with this book. In an era o f rapid and sometimes radical developments in
this field it is for various reasons a significant and timely publication. The
book is as complete and up-to-date as any such comprehensive and broad-
ranging text in this field of the law can hope to be. In its newly off-the-
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press stage it is a teacher’s, practitioner’s and student’s dream. It serves as

a direct and authoritative source of knowledge and information, not only
because o f its content but also as a result of the author’s standing as a
scholar and teacher.

The content is divided into four major parts - each dealing with
systematically and thematically grouped together topics o f concern to
environmental lawyers.

• Part I, entitled “Background” provides a comfortable but thorough

introduction to the law governing the environment. The first of its
five chapters deals briefly with environmental ethics, moves on to
analyze the seemingly still (partially) elusive concept of
“environment”, and dwells on the wide-ranging legal sources of
environmental law, before it comes to a thorough discussion of the
principles, norms, values and highest goals o f environmental law
(pp. 14-22). Chapter 2 covers international environmental law - a
rapidly expanding and increasingly coercive set of policies,
principles and rules from which no nation state can for very much
longer get away on the basis o f sovereignty arguments. This chapter
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lays the foundation, and provides the context, for the approach
followed by all the ensuing chapters dealing with the various
component parts or topics of environmental law. Chapter 3 brings
the fundamental rights perspective of both humans and the
environment into the discussion. All the rights having a bearing on
the environment are discussed in their relation to the “environmental
right” contained in section 24 of the Constitution. Translating the
prior discussed ethical foundations into legal rights and obligations,
it moves to the very strong chapter 4 devoted to administration,
implementation and enforcement of environmental law in South
Africa. Part I concludes in chapter 5 with a thorough analysis of the
National Environmental Management Act of 1998, the flagship of
current South African legislation in this field. The chapter
articulates, amongst others, the ways in which the internationally
recognized principles, norms, values and practices have been written
into our statute law (pp. 161-191).
Part II, “Land, Planning and Development”, contains chapters on the
law governing perhaps the most visible forms of human impact on
the environment, to wit the use o f land in all its forms. The reform
o f land use and the agricultural exploitation o f natural resources are
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discussed in chapter 6. In chapter 7 the law governing the planning

o f activities that (may) have an impact on the environment is dealt
with. The complex interaction between planning and development
on the hand and the control, management, administration and
monitoring o n . the other hand is thoroughly discussed. The
relationships between, and the responsibilities of, the three spheres
o f government are pointed out to the reader. The importance of the
proper cooperation o f these three spheres - as mandated in Chapter 3
o f the Constitution - in these matters for the maintenance of the
quality o f life and the sustainability o f our use o f the environment is
strongly emphasized. Chapter 8, a very useful chapter for all
environmental managers, deals with the concepts, objectives and
practices as well as the law regulating the assessment and
management o f the activities that may have an (usually adverse)
impact on the environment. Chapter 9 is devoted to the “surreal”
world o f the biodiversity o f life forms on earth. It discusses the
concept of biological diversity and the ramifications of the
preservation and maintenance thereof through international
conventions, national legislation right down to the value of the
simple, prudent human interaction with organisms and ecosystems
 Book Review 239

in the environment. A substantial part of the chapter (pp. 313-325)

deals with the South African law regulating biodiversity. The law
governing the coastal environment is covered in chapter 10. The
motivation o f the author for including it in this part o f the book is
because it is recognized worldwide as a high-impact zone of human
development and natural resource extraction activity (p. 329). Access
and rights to, development in, extracting living and non-living
resources from, and delimiting and protecting the coastal environment
are dealt with from the perspective of international conventional law
as well as the national legislation governing maritime zones. A
diagram (p. 356), taken from the Draft White Paper on Sustainable
Coastal Development in South Africa, is very helpful in explaining
the intricacies o f the determination o f jurisdiction over the coastal and
adjacent maritime zones in international and South African law. The
chapter concludes with a strong plea and motivation for urgent legal
reform in this area of the law (p. 360-361). Part II concludes with an
extensive chapter on protected areas on both private and public land
(including, inter alia, national parks) as well as on land extending
across national frontiers in the Southern African region), community-
based conservation and community-based natural resources
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management. Proceeding from the discussion of the relevant

terminology and definitions, it covers the whole spectrum of sources
of law on the topic. Particularly interesting and relevant is paragraph
11.3 (pp. 378-384) that deals with land restitution and the
concomitant consideration o f land-use options -alternative to
development - by resettled communities.
The very heading of Part III, “Natural and Cultural Resources”
demonstrates the prevailing holistic approach to the meaning of “the
environment”. Its four constituent chapters deal with the living, non­
living and culturally constructed or modified aspects of the
environment. Chapter 12 covers wild animals, forests and plants. In
the first six paragraphs it extends from the introductory historical,
definitional and classificatory aspects of fauna and flo ra through the
international, common law and constitutional law dimensions of
conservation to the administration of conservation legislation by the
four former, as well as the nine new, provinces (pp. 415-439). A
substantial part o f the remaining five paragraphs are devoted to the
law dealing with forests, trees and plants. A new and much-needed
statute that deals specifically with the prevention, control and
management of fires in our7 drought-prone country, the National
 240 2000 (7) SAJELP

Veld and Forest Fire Act, 1998, is included in the discussion (pp.
454-456). Chapter 13, focusing on living marine resources, starts by
listing the sectors o f the South African fishing industiy, from where
it proceeds to discuss the principles, biology and economics of
fisheries management and recent policy and legal developments.
The actual law itself is discussed over the extent o f international
law, constitutional law, the common law, as well the principal Acts
that govern the administration, exploitation and protection o f our
living marine resources. Chapterl4 covers the environmental aspects
o f the new South African water law. The abrogated common law
position is briefly discussed. South Africa’s international
cooperation in the field o f water is discussed in passing. The bulk of
the chapter is an analysis o f the main features o f the 1998 National
Water Act. The ecological aspects and the conservation measures
contained in it are attended to in paragraph 14.3 (pp. 531-537). The
corresponding measures o f the Water Services Act, 1997, are looked
at on pages 537-540. Chapter 15, which covers mining activities and
energy generation, contains an excellent treatment o f those issues
that lawyers, developers and environmental managers need to know
when undertaking either o f these activities which as a rule are highly
disturbing and intrusive o f the environment. Chapter 16, “Heritage
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Resources”, defines the variety o f resources falling under this broad

concept and discusses the access to, and the protection and
conservation o f such resources in terms o f the international law, the
common law, the Constitution and specifically very recently enacted
legislation in this regard that, in comparison with the common law
position, quite markedly extend the protection o f these resources.
Part IV, “Pollution Control and Waste management” deals with the
legal regimes regulating the scourge o f modem culture - pollution in
all forms and the ubiquitous problem o f waste in all forms. In line
with the preceding parts, the South African position is approached in
an international and a comparative perspective. Chapter 17 contains
an exhaustive discussion o f the general principals of law for
pollution control and waste management. Chapter 18 is assigned to
land pollution. Chapter 19 covers atmospheric pollution. Chapter 20
focuses on noise pollution, chapter 21 on fresh water pollution, and
chapter 22 on pollution of marine and coastal waters.

The book is well written in lucid and easily understandable “plain”

English. Occasionally the language in the main text and in the footnotes is
 Book Review 241

either a little repetitive or too terse. These two extremities of expression

might both, paradoxically, have been brought about by the same quest for
completeness and facility o f access to the text. It is, however, a matter of
style and therefore remains the prerogative o f the author.

The various parts o f the main text are well cross-referenced. This greatly
enhances its accessibility and readability. It further complements the
author’s approach to the holistic nature of the material.

Simply because a reviewer is expected to find at least some error(s) in a

publication under his/her review, I refer to the trivial oversight by the
author o f checking the page numbering provided in the index o f the
bibliography on page 853, which does not correspond with the ensuing
pages.

The book is exhaustively referenced with respect to publications in the

English language. References to materials for further recommended
reading are provided at the end o f every chapter. Bibliographies containing
books, journal articles, official documents, newspaper and magazine
reports, conference proceedings and general reports, and websites are
included. A list o f international environmental conventions relevant to
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South Africa is included on pages 825-829. Lists o f acronyms and tables

o f cases and statutes are provided. A detailed index is included at the back
o f the book.

Because it is not the first book to be published on this topic in South

Africa, it is at risk o f being compared with its predecessors and
contemporaries. The principal titles in this regard are Richard Fuggle and
Andre Rabie’s pioneering interdisciplinary magnum opus, Environmental
Management in South Africa (Juta, 1982, 1992, and 1999 updated),
Michael Kidd’s Environmental Law - a South African Perspective (Juta,
1997), focused on the structure o f a more or less standard LLB course in
the field, and Duard Barnard’s Environmental Law fo r A ll (Impact Books,
1999), aimed at the wider law as well as non-law practitioners’ market.
Although these texts all have something (sometimes more, sometimes less)
in common with one another, they cannot really be justifiably compared.
They should therefore rather be juxtaposed as unique individual
contributions to this field. However, the text under review is undoubtedly
the current seminal work on environmental law in South Africa.
 242 2000 (7) SAJELP

Jan Glazewski is to be congratulated on this work. It is an indispensable

text on the shelves o f teachers, researchers, students, practitioners,
planners, developers, managers and administrators. It is a long and
complex book, the updating o f which will be a daunting task in itself. The
book is attractively and illustratively bound in a soft cover with a
conceptual and symbolic cover design that reflects the author’s approach
to the substance inside it. The book is slightly on the expensive side,
especially for students. In rtiy view, however, it is unsurpassable value for
money.

The publishers, Butterworths, are equally to be congratulated. The book is

the direct result o f their Law Writers’ Prize initiative. We are indeed
fortunate to be benefiting from their continuous support of and
encouragement to the legal profession to produce publications o f the
highest standard.

Tobias van Reenen

y
Professor o f Law, University o f the Western Cape,
Bellville, Cape Town
23rd February 2001
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