Submission on the Amendments to National Environmental Management Act of 1998

Natural Justice (NJ) submitted a formal objection on 31 January 2022 to proposed amendments to the s24H Registration Authority Regulations, 2016 under the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA). NJ argues that requiring a registered Environmental Assessment Practitioner (EAP) to handle appeals and certain submissions would create prohibitive financial barriers for communities, effectively barring them from the appeals process and subsequent judicial review.

• The proposed amendments to the s24H Registration Authority Regulations, 2016, seek to correct the omission of activity 11 from the Environmental Impact Assessment Listing Notice 1 of 2014. This change specifically targets paragraph 5, which previously only applied to activity 9 regarding submission processes for large-scale electricity transmission and distribution facilities. Natural Justice notes that this will have significant implications for wind and solar energy projects in South Africa's Just Energy transition.
• Natural Justice contends that proposed regulation 14(1)(f) would restrict the ability to perform tasks related to appeals under section 43 of NEMA to registered Environmental Assessment Practitioners (EAPs) only. This requirement would force interested and affected parties, particularly impoverished communities, to fund an EAP to prepare and submit appeals, which NJ describes as a prohibitive cost.
• The submission argues that the proposed amendments would effectively block the public's right to judicial review. Under the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act 3 of 2000 (PAJA), parties must exhaust internal remedies—such as filing an appeal against an environmental authorization—before seeking judicial review. If the requirement to hire an EAP makes the internal appeal process inaccessible, the right to a court review is also stifled.
• Natural Justice asserts that the proposed amendments violate the constitutional right to procedurally fair administrative action as outlined in Section 33 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa's Bill of Rights. They argue the changes undermine the spirit of NEMA by discouraging public participation in environmental decision-making.

APA

Natural Justice (2022). Submission on the Amendments to National Environmental Management Act of 1998. https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Natural-Justice-public-comment-on-NEMA-Amendment-Jan-2022.pdf

Chicago

Natural Justice. Submission on the Amendments to National Environmental Management Act of 1998. 2022. https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Natural-Justice-public-comment-on-NEMA-Amendment-Jan-2022.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Natural Justice |title=Submission on the Amendments to National Environmental Management Act of 1998 |date=31 January 2022 |url=https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Natural-Justice-public-comment-on-NEMA-Amendment-Jan-2022.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{naturaljustice2022submission, author = {{Natural Justice}}, title = {{Submission on the Amendments to National Environmental Management Act of 1998}}, publisher = {Natural Justice}, year = {2022}, month = jan, url = {https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Natural-Justice-public-comment-on-NEMA-Amendment-Jan-2022.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }