Chauke Vumbhoni and Kola O. Odeku

DOI: https://doi.org/10.6000/1929-7092.2019.08.141

Published: 31 December 2019

Abstract: South Africa is part of the global initiative against emissions of harmful substances to the environment and the atmosphere in order to ensure maximum protection of the planet earth, its environment, the atmosphere. It is against this backdrop that there exist legislative and regulatory frameworks for accountability and sanctioning perpetrators who degrade and ravage the environment and atmosphere. It is imperative to point out that reasonable measures should be taken at all times to prevent harm from occurring to the environment and if harm cannot be reasonably avoided or stopped, there should be ways to minimize it and steps taken to rectify such harm to the environment. Therefore, the care and management of the environment is principally recognized and regulated by the National Environmental Management Act of 1998 which obligates all and sundry to exercise the duty of care for the environment by acting responsibly and sensibly (that is, every person has the duty to avoid pollution and environmental degradation). The duty of care has retrospective effect, meaning that the duty is imposed on anyone who causes, has caused or may cause significant pollution or degradation to the environment. This article highlights various environmental laws and principles and the consequences of violating the duty of care particularly by people who are ravaging the environment in the name of pursuing economic growth and development. It argues for stringent implementation and enforcement of regulatory interventions in order to bring perpetrators to account. This article is novel, significant and contributes to the body of knowledge based on the backdrop that there is no article that has delved or researched on the impact of employing duty of care to protect and preserve the planet earth for purposes of holding perpetrators to account.

Keywords: Environmental harm, harmful substances, protection, redress, accountability.

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