The judiciary's gritty efforts to erode the mining authority's continued aversion to cooperative environmental governance in the Cape dunes - Hugo Wiehahn Louw NO v Swartland Municipality and Maccsand (Pty) Ltd v City of Cape Town : case notes

• Author: Alexander Paterson
• DOI: 10.10520/EJC153191
• Published date: 01 January 2011
• Date: 01 January 2011
• Pages: 567-577
• publishedBy: UNISA Press

The judiciary’s gritty efforts to erode the

miningauthority’s continued aversion to

cooperativeenvironmental governance

in the Cape dunes

Hugo W iehahn Louw NO v Swartland Municipality and Maccsand

(Pty) Ltd v City of Cape Town

1 Introduction

Some two years ago, and in the context of Swartland Municipality v Hugo

Wiehahn Louw, I bemoaned the extent to which the actions of the national

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mining authorities illustrated disrespect for the constitutional status, institutions,

powers and functions of the local sphere of government; an attempt to assume

power over an area of competence not conferred on them in terms of the

Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (Constitution); an encroachment on

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the geographical, functional and institutional integrity of local government; a

failure to co-operate with local government in mutual trust and good faith; and a

flagrant disregard of the statutory dictates of co-operative governance enshrined

in the Constitution and the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA).

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Notwithstanding a string of recent jurisprudence that has subsequently confirmed

the nature and constitutional status of local government’s competence over

municipal planning, I concernedly again have recourse to do so. The setting:

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again, the sand-mining operations in the Western Cape’s dune landscapes. The

Swartland Municipality v Louw 2010 5 SA 314 (W CC).

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1996.

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Chapter 3.

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Act 107 of 1998.

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Paterson ‘Undermining land-use planning and co-operative governance’ (2010) 25 SAPL 692-697.

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These cases include: Intercape Ferreira Mainliner (Pty) Ltd v Minister of Home Affairs 2010 5 SA

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367 (WCC); City of Cape Town v Maccsand (Pty) Ltd 2010 6 SA 63 (WCC); Johannesburg

Metropolitan Municipality v Gauteng Development Tribunal2010 6 SA 182 (CC); and Wary Holdings

(Pty) Ltd v Stalwo (Pty) Ltd 2009 1 SA 337 (CC).