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Administrative penalties as a tool for resolving South Africa’s environmental compliance and enforcement woes

Includes bibliographical references.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Hugo, Robyn Elizabeth
Other Authors: Paterson Alexander
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Institute of Marine and Environmental Law 2015
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access_status_str Open Access
author Hugo, Robyn Elizabeth
author2 Paterson Alexander
author_browse Hugo, Robyn Elizabeth
Paterson Alexander
author_facet Paterson Alexander
Hugo, Robyn Elizabeth
author_sort Hugo, Robyn Elizabeth
collection Thesis
description Includes bibliographical references.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/12859
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:38:46.075Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2015
publishDateRange 2015
publishDateSort 2015
publisher Institute of Marine and Environmental Law
publisherStr Institute of Marine and Environmental Law
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/12859 Administrative penalties as a tool for resolving South Africa’s environmental compliance and enforcement woes Hugo, Robyn Elizabeth Paterson Alexander Environmental Law Includes bibliographical references. South Africa’s environmental resources are in serious decline, despite the constitutional environmental right, and multiple environmental protection laws. A predominant reason for this is that the criminal sanction is the default method of environmental enforcement. Even if prosecutors succeed in proving guilt beyond reasonable doubt, the fines imposed are too low to deter environmental violations. This dissertation proposes the introduction of an administrative penalty system into SA environmental law, as this system has had positive compliance impacts in numerous jurisdictions. Administrative penalties in the Netherlands and United Kingdom (the roots of SA’s civil and common law systems, respectively) are evaluated to identify best practices for administrative penalties. In SA’s environmental regime, there is an ‘administrative fine’ contained in section 24G of the National Environmental Management Act 107 of 1998. This is not a true administrative penalty, nor does it comply with the recommended best practices. Section 24G should either be deleted or substantially improved to meet its obligation of protecting the environment. Given the significant potential of administrative penalties to improve environmental compliance and enforcement, practical suggestions are made regarding their introduction into SA environmental law as a means to halt the current widespread non-compliance with environmental legislation. 2015-05-26T14:10:47Z 2015-05-26T14:10:47Z 2014 Master Thesis Masters LLM http://hdl.handle.net/11427/12859 eng application/pdf Institute of Marine and Environmental Law Faculty of Law University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Environmental Law
Hugo, Robyn Elizabeth
Administrative penalties as a tool for resolving South Africa’s environmental compliance and enforcement woes
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Administrative penalties as a tool for resolving South Africa’s environmental compliance and enforcement woes
title_full Administrative penalties as a tool for resolving South Africa’s environmental compliance and enforcement woes
title_fullStr Administrative penalties as a tool for resolving South Africa’s environmental compliance and enforcement woes
title_full_unstemmed Administrative penalties as a tool for resolving South Africa’s environmental compliance and enforcement woes
title_short Administrative penalties as a tool for resolving South Africa’s environmental compliance and enforcement woes
title_sort administrative penalties as a tool for resolving south africa s environmental compliance and enforcement woes
topic Environmental Law
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/12859
work_keys_str_mv AT hugorobynelizabeth administrativepenaltiesasatoolforresolvingsouthafricasenvironmentalcomplianceandenforcementwoes