WHY?

Environmental law affects your business if you are conducting any of the listed activities in the National Environmental Management Act, National Water Act and other related environmental laws. These are a prescribed list of activities that can take place as part of a development, mining or industrial process.

If these are undertaken by your company without prior consent from the respective environmental government departments, you may be penalised and your development or operation may be terminated or temporarily shut down.

We help to facilitate development so that the environmental government departments as well as the property developers or industrial operations can continue with the best possible solutions and time frames.

Possible infringements on the law include:

• A developer has commenced an activity that is a listed activity without the required authorization.
• A developer has commenced an activity that is a listed activity after having applied for environmental authorization and the authorization was denied.
• A developer was granted authorization for a project with certain conditions.
• The developer has not complied with the specified conditions.

The risks associated with non-compliance with environmental law are:

• A monetary fine at the discretion of the competent authority. These vary from R150 000 to R5 000 000.
• A member of the public, a company or an organ of state may lodge a criminal charge against the offender at the South African Police Services.
• In the case of conditions not being met on an existing authorization, the state can suspend, withdraw or amend the authorization.
• The department can also issue a directive or compliance notice where the offender is given 30 days in which to remedy the situation. This will be issued by the High Court.
• The competent authority may obtain an interdict from the High Court to force the development to cease or forces the developer to remedy something pertaining to their development at their cost. This will only be issued if the offender has been issued a directive or compliance notice and has failed to comply.