Cooperative Environmental Governance: At the Coalface of Sustainable Infrastructure Development in South Africa

Abstract

In this article, large-scale infrastructure development is situated within the sustainability paradigm with an emphasis on questions about environmental impact. W hile the focus is on South Africa, the article contributes to the broader body of law and governance scholarship that deals with the complexity inherent in the search for infrastructure development that meets the demands of sustainability. The authors attend specifically to the role of cooperative environmental governance (CEG). They set out to explain the existence of and difficulty surrounding the legal duty of the South African government to pursue sustainability via its development-related decision-making processes. The prominence of the notion of cooperative government in South Africa’s democratic government system is highlighted whereafter the authors evaluate the role of CEG in government decisions that they regard to be in need of an inclusive and holistic approach to sustainability. The difficulty inherent in marrying CEG with the pursuit of sustainability in large-scale project developments is explained with specific reference to the controversial Medupi and Kusile power station projects. In conclusion, the authors briefly outline the provisions of the 2014 Infrastructure Development Act and ask if and how the Act can cater for CEG through a limited environmental impact but can still adhere to the requirements that government decisions pass the tests of the Constitution and framework environmental legislation.