The evolving developmental role of the state as public trustee of South Africa's natural resources and property

Abstract

Through its environmental laws and policies, the state needs to ensure the ecologically sustainable development and use of South Africa's natural resources, while promoting justifiable economic and social development. Thus, the view that property owners may not use their property in ways that prejudice the community and other peoples' interests in environmental resources must be considered. This corresponds with the acknowledged stance that property, in its widest sense, has a "public or civic or proprietary" aspect to it that transcends individual economic interests, and that private property ownership should be inherently limited for the benefit of society at large. Property is, therefore, intimately bound up with the socio-economic security and well-being of all South African citizens. Since a developmental state actively guides economic development and the use of the country's resources to meet the needs of the people, the developmental role of the state should serve the public interest. In South Africa, though, the public function of property is frequently usurped by the government's developmental-state ambitions and influenced by political and economic considerations that affect the socio-economic fabric of the country. The South African government, as public trustee of the nation's natural resources, must regulate access to and use of natural resources by exercising its stewardship ethic. However, this is not always the case when it comes to critical resources like water and land - a situation that perpetuates the historically imbalanced distribution of wealth in South Africa.