Government outlines new laws on land reclaimed from the ocean
The department of environmental affairs has published new regulations on land that has been reclaimed from South Africa’s surrounding coastal waters.
According to the department, the reclamation of land from the sea (which it clarifies as the process of creating new land from the sea) is a significant activity for the country, and open to potential abuse.
Some of the problems it identified include potential abuse by private businesses by creating privatised space that is closed off to the public, and the mixed use of reclaimed land and re-sale of portions of land that make it difficult to track and monitor.
It also highlighted that previously reclaimed land was often sold for extremely cheap prices, and that government did not follow a standardised process when assessing the land for environmental sustainability as well as public benefit.
As such, the new regulations require that any interested parties looking to make use of the reclaimed land will be subject to a full authorisation process – including a detailed motivation for how they plan to use the land, the potential environmental impact, as well as a number of other factors that need to be considered when granting access to the land.
While the issue of ocean-based land reclamation has been floated for a number of years, its publication is particularly notable following the recent discussions surrouding land ‘expropriation without compensation’.
On 27 February a motion was passed by the EFF and ANC to review land redistribution without compensation under the Constitution.
Parliament’s Constitutional Review Committee is now expected to report back to lawmakers on changes to section 25 of the Constitution by 30 August.
Read: ANC looking at expropriating privately-owned water: report
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