The Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (Seifsa) earlier this month said South Africa’s strict environmental legislation was a significant challenge for small, medium-sized and microenterprises (SMMEs) that could hamper further growth of this sector if not dealt with “as a matter of urgency”.

“Compared to its African counterparts, South Africa has stringent environmental legislation, with extremely steep pecuniary sanctions. The National Environmental Management Act, for instance, stipulates that any person found in contravention of an environmental measure will be liable to a fine of up to R5-million and imprisonment of up to ten years,” the organisation pointed out.

Seifsa cited troubled miner Nkomati Anthracite, which was ordered to pay an amount of R4-million within 14 days from the date of the sentence for environmental damage. “Such enormous fines are enough to wipe some SMMEs out of existence,” it stressed.

Further, it noted that SMMEs did not have the dedicated human resources to keep abreast of the latest developments in terms of legal requirements. In 2014, nine pieces of environmental legislation were promulgated.

“For example, the National Pollution Preven-tion Regulations of 2014 require companies to submit Pollution Prevention Plans by March 31. The regulations do not stipulate any competence requirements for measuring greenhouse gases for the measurement results to be considered valid.

“Can employers perform their own measure-ments? Do they even have the competence to evaluate and improve measurement methods as required by the regulations?” it asked.

As a solution, Seifsa noted that awareness campaigns on environmental legislation should be enhanced to ensure that affected employers recognise environmental risks in all aspects of their work. “It is unfair that environmental management inspectors so rigorously enforce legislation that is not clearly understood by many,” it added.

According to the ‘National Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Report 2013/14’, there has been an 18.3% increase in enforceable noncompliance.

Administrative fines for operations without environmental authorisation increased by 199.48% from R5.38-million in the 2012/13 cycle to R12.51-million in 2013/14. “While this work is commendable, robust interventions are necessary to ensure that affected employers are aware of their obliga-tions,” Seifsa said.

“We can only hope that the Ministry of Small Business created last year will play a crucial role in supporting SMMEs and in removing some of the red tape that they have to deal with,” it concluded.