It is common-cause that South Africa can be regarded as a country that is rich in
diversity of natural resources. Moreover, it is generally accepted that South Africa
has the best legislation with regard to the regulation of the environment in various
fields such as water, air, biodiversity and waste management. However, there is to
date, no specific legislation regulating renewable energy in South Africa. As a result
of the high unemployment rate, poverty and the rural population not having adequate
access to electricity, these communities depend heavily on the traditional use of
biomass, which refers to the direct combustion of wood, charcoal, leaves, agricultural
residue, and animal/human waste for their basic energy needs, which include
cooking, drying and charcoal production. The traditional use of biomass results in a
host of detrimental side-effects such as environmental degradation and negative
social impacts. The latter necessitates that the use of renewable energy sources will
need to be regulated in terms of law and policy reflective of section 24 of the
Constitution of the Republic of South-Africa, 1996.
In terms of section 24 of the Constitution, the State must establish and implement
reasonable legislative measures to promote sustainable development and the
sustainable use of natural resources while providing for the protection of the
environment for the benefit of present and future generations. It is immediately
evident that the legislative measures mandated by section 24 of the Constitution
should be geared towards the facilitation of environmental protection. Falling within
the ambit of such legislative measures is framework legislation. An example of
framework legislation is the National Environmental Management Act 107 of 1998
(the NEMA).
In this dissertation an overview of the concept of framework legislation will be
provided with specific reference to the NEMA and its role as such in South African
environmental law. This will be followed by an analysis of existing South African
renewable energy policy documents, during which norms and/or principles common
to these documents will be identified. The question subsequently arises: What
should be included in framework legislation aimed at regulating renewable energy in
South Africa? These identified norms will be proposed as the general basic norms
which should be included in renewable energy framework legislation aimed at
regulating the supply of renewable energy in South Africa. / LLM (Environmental Law and Governance), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nwu/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/15634 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Van der Merwe, David Frederik |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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