House Chairperson, good afternoon. On 6 May 2012 the Democratic Alliance welcomed the introduction of five pieces of environmental legislation, namely, the National Environmental Management Act, the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act, the National Environmental Management: Air Quality Act, the National Environmental Management Laws Amendment Act, and the National Environmental Management: Protected Areas Amendment Act.
Under the National Environmental Management Act, during the implementation phase, many service delivery problems were encountered, especially by the Department of Co-operative Governance, that hampered and delayed service delivery. These challenges have now been addressed in the amendments and hopefully will no longer be used as a scapegoat for nondelivery.
The continued proactive participation and input around these challenges by the DA-led Western Cape provincial government was a welcome contribution to the finalisation of these amendments. It needs to be noted that the Western Cape provincial government was the only province that played an active role in providing insight into the problems and challenges around the previous shortcomings of the legislation.
A welcome amendment to the Bill grants the Minister the responsibility of becoming the competent authority in the issuing of environmental authorisations when an MEC fails to take decisions on the issuing of the environmental authorisations, either unreasonably or within a prescribed timeframe due to lack of capacity or for any other reason.
We, however, need to be clear and mindful that this provision will only apply when the unnecessary delays are caused by the MEC and not the consultants handling the applications. This amendment will accelerate and facilitate development and job creation and encourage investment.
The portfolio committee was mindful of section 125(3), which obliges the national government, by legislation, to assist and develop administrative capacity in order to ensure that provincial departments are functioning correctly. This section also makes provision and obliges the Minister to report to Parliament annually.
A further welcome addition is that the national and provincial departments responsible for environmental affairs as well as metropolitan and district municipalities will have to prepare and publish environmental outlook reports within four years of the Bill coming into operation. These reports will also have to be published at intervals of no more than four years thereafter.
Section 24(e), as amended, deals with the transfer of rights and obligations, and will ensure that the environmental authorisations will be transferred when there is a change in ownership. Numerous problems have been encountered in which many entities commenced knowingly with a listed activity without environmental authorisation. They only apply at a later stage, subsequently paying fines that were built into their costing structures.
Section 24(g) deals with this in a very stringent manner and substantive amendments have been made. The administrative fine has also been increased considerably to R5 million, which must be determined by the competent authority. The co-operation of the National Prosecuting Authority, the NPA, is critical in this regard. Many of our citizens live in an environment that is detrimental and harmful to their health and wellbeing in our country. We therefore agree that the state must respect and protect our wellbeing.
Furthermore, the economic and environmental rights of all persons should be considered and protected. The wellbeing and needs of the previously disadvantaged communities are many a time disregarded. We cannot continue to ignore the shortcomings and should continue to improve their situations and fight for their rights as contained in the Constitution.
The evaluation of sustainable development must take into consideration the socioeconomic environmental factors during the planning processes in order to implement them in a manner that is not detrimental to the environment.
The Democratic Alliance welcomes all attempts in the tidying up of the grey areas in the Act. The definitions and functions are now clarified in order to avoid further confusion about the competent authorities.
I would like to thank the portfolio committee chairperson for his tireless efforts and legal expertise, as well as the department, and our colleagues on the portfolio committee for all the hard work in finalising this amending Bill. The DA supports the National Environmental Management Laws Second Amendment Bill. [Applause.]