South Africa’s pursuit of sustainable development remains uneven, with economic growth often taking precedence over environmental and social considerations, and while laws and policies highlight sustainability, practice tells a different story.
“Economic growth dominates the discourse,” said Dr Fredua Agyemang, a postdoctoral research fellow under the SARChI Chair: Cities, Law and Environmental Sustainability at the North-West University (NWU).
“Social sustainability is often reduced to consultation exercises, and environmental concerns are treated as secondary.”
In a recent commentary titled “Contesting priorities: balancing environmental, social and economic sustainability in South Africa’s mega projects”, Dr Agyemang said recent court decisions reflect this imbalance. “When courts halt projects, it is usually because communities were excluded from decisions, not because ecosystems were harmed.”.
He cited the 2022 Wild Coast Seismic Survey case, in which the Eastern Cape High Court set aside Shell’s exploration rights due to a lack of consultation, and the Amazon Development ruling in Cape Town, which focused on heritage and community participation. The Xolobeni Mining judgment in 2018 also hinged on consent from affected communities rather than ecological risk.
“These rulings mark important gains for social justice,” Dr Agyemang said. “But they also expose a legal paradox: environmental protection advances only when it piggybacks on procedural fairness.”
Environment deserves protection because it sustains life
He described this pattern as procedural environmentalism, a system where courts reward correct processes over ecological outcomes. “Our jurisprudence has become one of procedural justice,” he said. “Public participation is vital, but it cannot replace sound environmental reasoning. The environment deserves protection not only because people live in it, but because it sustains life itself.”
Dr Agyemang warned that this imbalance risks turning sustainability into a bureaucratic exercise. “We cannot treat consultation as an end in itself,” he said. “If environmental integrity continues to rank below procedural fairness, sustainability becomes a ritual rather than a result.”
To address the issue, he proposed embedding ecological limits into planning law, training judges in environmental jurisprudence, and integrating community knowledge with scientific data.
“South Africa stands at a crossroads,” he said. “We can continue with profit-driven development wrapped in participatory language, or we can pursue a model where environmental integrity, social inclusion and economic viability reinforce one another.
“Justice in development must begin with inclusion, but it must end with ecological integrity,” he concluded.
Dr Fredua Agyemang
