The judiciary’s gritty efforts to erode the mining authority’s continued aversion to cooperative environmental governance in the Cape dunes

Abstract

Some two years ago, and in the context of Swartland Municipality v Hugo Wiehahn Louw, I bemoaned the extent to which the actions of the national mining authorities illustrated disrespect for the constitutional status, institutions, powers and functions of the local sphere of government; an attempt to assume power over an area of competence not conferred on them in terms of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (Constitution); an encroachment on the geographical, functional and institutional integrity of local government; a failure to co-operate with local government in mutual trust and good faith; and a flagrant disregard of the statutory dictates of co-operative governance enshrined in the Constitution and the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA).