Civil Liability With Reference To NEMA (SO4-AC5)

South Africa is part and parcel of the world initiatives to ensure maximum protection of the environment for the sake of the existing generation and the future generations which are yet to come.

In its bid to promote the conservation of the environment, it imposes a duty to everyone who has caused or may cause significant harm to the environment to “...take reasonable measures to prevent such harm from occurring, continuing or recurring, or, in so far as such harm to the environment is authorized by law or cannot reasonably be avoided or stopped, to minimise and rectify such harm to the environment."

Such a duty is principally recognised by the National Environmental Management Act of 1998 (NEMA) and it is known as the duty of care.

The NEMA Act “Is based on the international environmental law principles of sustainable development and integrated environmental management”.

Civil law protection of the environment is not regulated directly by specific regulations, but it is foreseen by legislative instruments in the area of compensation of damages, such as the Law on Obligations, the Law on the Basis of Property Relations and others.