A Brief Historical Analysis of Water Rights in South Africa

Abstract

This article reviews the historical development path of water rights in South Africa during the last 300 years or so. The basic finding is that water rights have come full circle. As early as 1652, the Dutch Company rulers declared water as public commodity and dominus fluminis status of the state, and they imposed the Roman-Dutch law in the country. The British, in contrast, privatized water and linked it with land tenure, thus establishing the supremacy of the riparian principle, and the apartheid government tried to swing the balance again to the Roman-Dutch law. However, the modern law under the democratic regime has appointed the central government as trustee of water resources with the major objective of promoting the efficient, sustainable, and beneficial use of water in the public interest and providing equitable access to water to all. However, it has brought much more responsibility than that envisaged by the law-makers.