Exploring the conflicting ideals of ecological modernisation and environmental justice in South Africa: Evidence from the 2020 National Waste Management Strategy

ABSTRACT

This article explores the impact of the shift towards neoliberalism on environmental management in post-1994 South Africa. The adoption of ecological modernisation as a policy strategy for sustainable development is examined, focusing on the reliance on market mechanisms. However, a lack of balance between the environment, society, and the economy is observed, as socio-economic and environmental concerns are often compromised for economic growth concerns. The resulting technocratic and bureaucratic approach to environmental governance is thus disconnected from the realities on the ground, indicating weak ecological modernisation. This study specifically assesses the implementation of ecological modernisation in waste management initiatives and emphasises the importance of policy implementation. The findings underscore the need for greater attention to policy imperatives to achieve a more effective, just and sustainable approach to waste management in South Africa.

KEYWORDS:

• Environmental governance
• green economy
• environmental justice
• waste management
• ecological modernisation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

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8 A measure to determine the performance of ecological modernisation has been created. As such, weak ecological modernisation is limited and less cooperative, whereas strong ecological modernisation is collaborative, transformative, inclusive and proactive. For more see: Michael Howes, “Joining the Dots: Sustainability, Climate Change and Ecological Modernisation.” Pathways to a Sustainable Economy: Bridging the Gap between Paris Climate Change Commitments and Net Zero Emissions (2018): 15–24.

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31 Mark Swilling and Eve Annecke, Just Transitions: Explorations of Sustainability in an Unfair World (Cape Town: UCT Press, 2012), 211.

32 Swilling and Annecke, Just Transitions: Explorations of Sustainability in an Unfair World, 211.

33 Swilling and Annecke, Just Transitions: Explorations of Sustainability in an Unfair World.

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35 This would later lead to the creation of the Green Fund in 2012, to finance South Africa’s transition to a green economy.

36 National Planning Commission, “NDP 2030 – Chapter 5 – Transition to Low-Carbon Economy,” 2020, https://www.nationalplanningcommission.org.za/National_Development_Plan.

37 RSA, “Carbon Tax Act 15,” Government Gazette 647, no. 42483 (2019).

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39 Carl Death, “Greening the 2010 FIFA World Cup: Environmental Sustainability and the Mega-Event in South Africa,” Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning 13, no. 2 (2011): 99–117.

40 MoaAmis et al., The Green Economy Barometer 2018 South Africa (Pretoria: African Centre, TIPS, GEC, 2018), www.greeneconomycoalition.org.

41 William Stafford and Kristy Faccer, “Steering towards a Green Economy,” CSIR (Stellenbosch: CSIR, 2014); Stats SA, “Only 10% of Waste Is Recycled in South Africa,” 2018, http://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=11527.

42 Shaheen Thakur and Adrian Nel, “Between the Market and the Developmental State–the Place and Limits of pro-Poor ENGO Led ‘Waste-Preneurship’ in South Africa,” Local Environment (2021): 1–15, https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2021.1937969.

43 RSA, “National Environmental Management: Waste Act 59,” Government Gazette 525, no. 32000 (2008), https://doi.org/102GOU/B.

44 E Zhakata et al., “A Critic of NEMA : Waste Act 59 of 2008, so Many Promises, Little Implementation and Enforcement,” in SAAPAM Limpopo Chapter (Limpopo: University of Limpopo, 2016), 228–36.

45 Zhakata et al., “A Critic of NEMA.”

46 Department of Environmental Affairs, “National Pricing Strategy for Waste Management No. 904,” Government Gazette 40200, no. 11 August (2016).

47 Linda Godfrey and Suzan Oelofse, “Historical Review of Waste Management and Recycling in South Africa,” Resources 6, no. 57 (2017): 1–11, https://doi.org/10.3390/resources6040057.

48 Nzalalemba Kubanza and Mulala Danny Simatele, “Sustainable Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries: A Study of Institutional Strengthening for Solid Waste Management in Johannesburg, South Africa,” Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 63, no. 2 (2020): 175–88.

49 Godfrey and Oelofse, “Historical Review of Waste Management and Recycling in South Africa.”

50 RSA, “National Waste Management Strategy,” Department of Environment, Forestry & Fisheries, 2011.

51 RSA, “National Waste Management Strategy.”

52 RSA, “National Waste Management Strategy.”

53 RSA, “National Waste Management Strategy.”

54 Theresa Smith, “Using Waste Management to Widen the Job Circle in South Africa,” ESI Africa, 2020, https://www.esi-africa.com/industry-sectors/future-energy/using-waste-management-to-widen-the-job-circle/.

55 “A National Waste R&D and Innovation Roadmap for South Africa: Phase 2 Waste RDI Roadmap. Trends in Waste Management and Priority Waste Streams for Waste RDI Roadmap” (Pretoria: Department of Science & Technology, 2014).

56 Joan Nyika et al., “Waste Management in South Africa,” in Sustainable Waste Management in Challenges in Developing Countries (IGI Global, 2020), 327–51.

57 Harro von Blottnitz, “Waste Management Reform and the Green Economy: When Will They Meet,” in Greening the South African Economy: Scoping the Issues, Challenges and Opportunities, ed. Mark Swilling, JK. Musango, and Jeremy Wakeford (Claremont: UCT Press, 2016), 252–67.

58 Nyika et al, “Waste Management in South Africa.”

59 Zelda Rasmeni and Daniel Madyria, “A Review of the Current Municipal Solid Waste Management Practices in Johannesburg City Townships,” Procedia Manufacturing 35 (2019): 1025–31.

60 Nzalalemba Kubanza and Mulala Simatele, “Sustainable Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries: A Study of Institutional Strengthening for Solid Waste Management in Johannesburg, South Africa,” Journal od Environmental Planning and Management 63, no. 2 (2020): 175–88.

61 Nyika et al., “Waste Management in South Africa.”

62 Zhakata et al., “A Critic of NEMA.” 

63 Linda Godfrey, Dianne Scott, Cristina Trois, “Caught between the Global Economy and Local Bureaucracy: The Barriers to Good Waste Management Practice in South Africa,” Waste Management and Research 31, no. 3 (2013): 295–305, https://doi.org/10.1177/0734242X12470204.

64 Godfrey, Scott, and Trois, “Caught between the Global Economy”, 301.

65 Godfrey, Scott, and Trois, “Caught between the Global Economy”, 302.

66 Michael Fakoya, “Institutional Challenges to Municipal Waste Management Service Delivery in South Africa,” Journal of Human Ecology 45, no. 2 (2014): 119–25.

67 Fakoya, “Institutional Challenges to Municipal Waste Management.”

68 “National Waste Management Strategy (NWMS) 2020 Costing Framework,” National Waste Management Strategy, 2020.

69 DEFF, “National Waste Management Strategy 2020” (Republic of South Africa: DEFF, 2020).

70 DEFF, “National Waste Management Strategy 2020.”

71 DEFF, “Consultation on the Proposed Regulations Regarding Extended Producer Responsibility,” Government Gazette 660, no. 43481 (2020): 1–12, http://dx.doi.org/9771682584003-32963.

72 Thandazile Moyo et al., “Barriers to Recycling E-Waste within a Changing Legal Environment in South Africa,” South African Journal of Science 118 (2022): 1–8.

73 DEFF, “National Waste Management Strategy (NWMS) 2020 Costing Framework.”

74 Maarten Hajer, The Politics of Environmental Discourse: Ecological Modernization and the Policy Process (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995).

75 DEFF, “National Waste Management Strategy (NWMS) 2020 Costing Framework.”

76 Arthur P. J. Mol, “Ecological Modernization and the Global Economy,” Global Environmental Politics 2, no. 2 (2002): 92–115, https://doi.org/10.1162/15263800260047844.

77 Hajer, The Politics of Environmental Discourse: Ecological Modernization and the Policy Process, 28.

78 Hajer, The Politics of Environmental Discourse: Ecological Modernization and the Policy Process.

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80 DEFF, “National Waste Management Strategy 2020.”

81 Such initiatives are closely linked to the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) in light of growing energy supply issues at Eskom and a growing renewable energy sector in the country. For more information see: Turning Waste Into Energy: A Roadmap For South Africa – SANEDI https://www.sanedi.org.za/turning-waste-into-energy-a-roadmap-for-south-africa/index.htm

82 Hajer, The Politics of Environmental Discourse: Ecological Modernization and the Policy Process.

83 RSA, “National Environmental Management Act,” Government Gazette 401, no. 19519 (1998).

84 DEFF, “National Waste Management Strategy 2020,” 58.

85 Here a waste reclaimer is referred to as someone who informally collects waste from households, curb side and businesses, otherwise known as waste pickers in some regions. Waste reclaimers are usually the most vulnerable within the waste and recycling value chain.

86 “SOUTH AFRICA: The Government Has Its Plan to Fight Climate Change,” Afrik 21, 2020, https://www.afrik21.africa/en/south-africa-the-government-has-its-plan-to-fight-climate-change/.

87 DEFF, “National Waste Management Strategy 2020.”

88 Zarina Patel, “Environmental Justice in South Africa: Tools and Trade-Offs,” Social Dynamics 35, no. 1 (2009): 94–110.

89 Dianne Scott and Catherine Oelofse, “Social and Environmental Justice in South African Cities: Including ‘invisible Stakeholders’ in Environmental Assessment Procedures,” Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 48, no. 3 (2005): 445–67.

90 Patel, “Environmental Justice in South Africa: Tools and Trade-Offs.”

91 Melanie Samson, “Wasted Citizenship ? Reclaimers and the Privatised Expansion of the Public Sphere,” Africa Development XXXIV, no. 3 & 4 (2009): 1–25.

92 Anine Kilian, “CSIR Considers Impact of EPR Schemes on Informal Waste Pickers,” 2016, https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/csir-considers-impact-of-epr-schemes-on-informal-waste-pickers-2016-03-29.

93 Global Alliance of Waste Pickers, “Violent Assault of Waste Pickers Near Genesis Landfill, Johannesburg,” 2018, http://globalrec.org/2018/07/07/violent-assault-of-waste-pickers-near-genesis-landfill-johannesburg/.

94 Environmental Justice Atlas, “Genesis Landfill Privatization by Averda in Johannesburg, South Africa | EJAtlas,” 2019, https://ejatlas.org/conflict/violence-against-wastepickers-linked-to-the-genesis-landfill-privatization-by-averda-in-johannesburg-south-africa.

95 Thakur and Nel, “Between the Market and the Developmental State–the Place and Limits of pro-Poor ENGO Led ‘Waste-Preneurship’ in South Africa.”

96 Thakur and Nel, “Between the Market.”

97 Martin Jänicke, “Ecological Modernization – a Paradise of Feasibility but No General Solution,” in The Ecological Modernization Capacity of Japan and Germany: Comparing Nuclear Energy, Renewables, Automobility and Rare Earth Policy, ed. Lutz Mez, Lila Okamura, and Helmut Weidner (Berlin & Tokyo: Springer, 2019), 13.

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99 Jutta Gutberlet et al., “Waste Picker Organizations and Their Contribution to the Circular Economy: Two Case Studies from a Global South Perspective,” Resources 6, no. 52 (2017): 1–12, https://doi.org/10.3390/resources6040052; Christian Luiz da Silva, Niklas Weins, and Maija Potinkara, “Formalizing the Informal? A Perspective on Informal Waste Management in the BRICS through the Lens of Institutional Economics,” Waste Management 99 (2019): 79–89, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2019.08.023.

100 Sangeetha Chandrashekeran et al., “Rethinking the Green State beyond the Global North: A South African Climate Change Case Study,” Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change 8, no. 6 (2017): 1–14, https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.473.

101 Oelofse et al., “Shifts within Ecological Modernization in South Africa,” 62.

102 Gaylor Montmasson-Clair, Governance for South Africa’s Sustainability Transition: A Critical Review (London: Green Economy Coalition, 2017).

103 Patrick Bond, Economic Growth, Ecological Modernization or Environmental Justice? Conflicting Discourses in South Africa Today (Johannesburg: Municipal Services Project, 2000).

104 Death, “The Green Economy in South Africa: Global Discourses and Local Politics.”

105 Long, “Reaching for Sustainability: Ecological Modernisation and Environmental Justice in South African..”

106 Long and Patel, “A New Theory for an Age-Old Problem : Ecological Modernisation and the Production of Nuclear Energy in South Africa.”

107 Oelofse et al., “Shifts within Ecological Modernization in South Africa: Deliberation, Innovation and Institutional Opportunities.”

108 Amis et al., “The Green Economy Barometer 2018 South Africa,” 6.

109 Vuyokazi Mtembu and Mershen Pillay, “A Contextual Review of South Africa’s Socio-Economic Content of Green Economy and Green Growth Indexes,” Journal of Public Administration 52, no. 3 (2017): 614–24:618–9.

110 Llewellyn Leonard, “Another Political Ecology of Civil Society Reflexiveness against Urban Industrial Risks for Environmental Justice: The Case of the Bisasar Landfill, Durban, South Africa,” Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 33 (2012): 77–92.

111 Academy of Science of South Africa, Towards a Low Carbon City: Focus on Durban (Pretoria: ASSAF, 2011); Long and Patel, “A New Theory for an Age-Old Problem : Ecological Modernisation and the Production of Nuclear Energy in South Africa”; Death, “The Green Economy in South Africa: Global Discourses and Local Politics.”

112 On civil society, Daniel Warshawsky comments that the post-1994 state-civil society relationship in South Africa is one of fragility, complexity and tension as the ANC-led government has become one beset by bureaucratic inefficiency, corruption, and an incapacity to implement policy. Furthermore, the ANC-led government has opted for the prioritisation of eco-efficiency and the marketisation of the environment to manage the environment. See Daniel Warshawsky, “State, Civil Society, and the Limits of NGO Institutionalization in Post-Apartheid South Africa,” African Geographical Review 32, no. 1 (2013): 1–13.

113 Rossouw and Wiseman, “Learning from the Implementation of Environmental Public Policy Instruments”; Carl Death, “Resisting (Nuclear) Power? Environmental Regulation in South Africa,” Review of African Political Economy 33, no. 109 (2006): 407–24; Clive Barnett and Dianne Scott, “Spaces of Opposition: Activism and Deliberation in Post-Apartheid Environmental Politics,” Environment and Planning A 39 (2007): 2612–31; Scott and Barnett, “Something in the Air: Civic Science and Contentious Environmental Politics in Post-Apartheid South Africa”; Long, “Reaching for Sustainability: Ecological Modernisation and Environmental Justice in South African Energy Policy and Practice.”

114 Oelofse et al., “Shifts within Ecological Modernization in South Africa: Deliberation, Innovation and Institutional Opportunities”; Mtembu and Pillay, “A Contextual Review of South Africa’s Socio-Economic Content of Green Economy and Green Growth Indexes.”

115 Sheree Bega, “Ramaphosa’s Energy Crisis Plan Far-Reaching and Comprehensive, Says Presidential Climate Commission,” Mail & Guardian, 2022, https://mg.co.za/environment/2022-07-28-ramaphosas-energy-crisis-plan-far-reaching-and-comprehensive-says-presidential-climate-commission/; Paul Burkhardt and Antony Sguazzin, “S. Africa Unshackles Private Sector in Bid to End Blackouts,” Bloomberg Africa Edition, 2022, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-07-25/south-africa-removes-license-rules-for-private-power-generators.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Universiteit Stellenbosch.

Notes on contributors

Michael Hector

Michael Hector was at the time of writing a post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Political Science, Stellenbosch University, South Africa. Dr Hector is now an economist with Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies (TIPS), South Africa.

Derica Lambrechts

Derica Lambrechts is a senior lecturer with the Department of Political Science, Stellenbosch University, South Africa.