Patrick Bond et al. Unsustainable South Africa: Environment, Development and Social Protest. Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press/London: Merlin Press, 2003. xxvi + 449 pp. Map. Figures. Tables. Photographs. Images. Notes. References. Index. $39.95. Paper.

Abstract

Patrick Bond et al. Unsustainable South Africa: Environment, Development and Social Protest. Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press/ London: Merlin Press, 2003. xxvi + 449 pp. Map. Figures. Tables. Photographs. Images. Notes. References. Index. $39.95. Paper. Bond and his ten coauthors (George Dor, Michael Dorsey, Maj Fiil-Flynn, Stephen Greenberg, Thulani Guliwe, David Hallowes, Becky Himlin, Stephen Hosking, Greg Ruiters and Robyn Stein) have achieved a tour de force with this refreshing volume. Their rich analysis of social policy choices made in South Africa by the postapartheid government is a courageous contribution to the corpus of literature linking society, environment, and development in that country. Published in the aftermath of the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg in 2002, Bond's publication appears as a rejoinder to that galvanizing event. The book is composed of four parts, the first of which focuses on the legacy of South Africa's unsustainable environmental policies and practices. Here the authors outline three discrete environment-development discourses-neoliberalism, sustainable development, and environmental justice-which provide a useful analytical framework for the discussion in subsequent chapters. Part 2 presents detailed case studies of unsustainable projects. The story turns on examples such as Coega, a mega-industrial development project underway in the Eastern Cape, and the controversial Lesotho Highlands Water Project, which supplies Gauteng Province with water from Lesotho. In the context of a vast backlog in basic services facing the ANC, these serve as battlegrounds between government, privatizing companies, and service providers on the one hand, and ordinary South Africans seeking water, sanitation, and electricity on the other. Part 3 focuses on unsustainable policies, primarily in the energy and water sectors, some inherited from the National Party, with equally poor social and environmental policies employed by current government officials. Part 4 includes only one chapter, the conclusion, which pulls the disparate threads together in a coherent, if sweeping, canvas. Class, race, gender, ideology, and power politics all enlarge and enhance this work, just as they feature prominently in South Africa's sociopolitical landscape. This book fills a yawning gap in our knowledge base. Government departments do release indicators on service delivery, and statistics are available from reliable sources such as Statistics South Africa. However, these are insufficient to provide a comprehensive picture of spatial and structural changes in infrastructure and energy and water policies, particularly in townships and rural regions. Statistics alone do not explain how far the government has progressed in widening access, in determining prices for users, or in terms of the quality and sustainability of methods used and services provided. The old comparison between statistics and bikinis is useful: What they reveal is important, but what they conceal is critical. Electrification figures in South Africa are a moving target. Households may be connected, but entire blocks are disconnected if one user fails to pay, rendering such figures unhelpful. In contrast, by relying on detailed research and data, the authors analyze the evolution of policy and practice in key sectors. They examine issues such as access and differential pricing, and utilize cost-benefit analyses to investigate alternative options, pointing to structural impediments and policies that need to be addressed before black South Africans can become full citizens with access to the same opportunities that were afforded to whites over the previous four decades. The strength of the book lies in the analytical case studies of large development projects, which require major capital outlays and expenditure from both public and private sectors. For instance, Bond et al. conclude that the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, which diverted water to South Africa while displacing two thousand residents in Lesotho, was poorly designed, badly implemented, economically detrimental, and ecologically pernicious. …