Waste management in South Africa: Institutional and legal discords a call for Constitutional and related laws’ reform

Abstract

Great efforts have been made towards environmental and/ or waste management law reform and harmonisation in South Africa. However, much discord still remains. Such discord emerges from the Constitution and other environmental laws that fail to separate distinctively the powers, roles and responsibilities of the three spheres of government that include the national, provincial and local authorities in terms of waste management. The confusion also stems from the failure of key environmental and/or waste legislation and institutions to ‘talk’ to each other both vertically and horizontally. This paper restricts itself to addressing issues surrounding general and health care waste management, particularly at the national and provincial levels as it relates to the critical concerns raised above