A “streamlined” environmental authorisation process is being introduced by the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) to facilitate the implementation of the 18 Strategic Infrastructure Projects (Sips) being overseen by South Africa’s Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Commission (PICC).

President Jacob Zuma established the PICC in 2011 to assist with the coordination and fast-tracking of various economic and social infrastructure projects, ranging from new minerals export corridors and electricity projects, to accelerated school-building and public-transport initiatives.

The infrastructure programme has been held up as government’s main response to weak economic growth, initially precipitated by the global financial crisis. The economy expanded by only 0.9% on a quarter-on-quarter basis, from 2.1% in the fourth quarter of last year.

In fact, Business Unity South Africa’s (Busa’s) special policy adviser Raymond Parsons pointed to the need to expedite the roll-out of the current infrastructural programme to help ameliorate the weak growth and employment outlook.

“As this weakening economic performance is being driven primarily by domestic circumstances, Busa believes that South Africa should focus on the factors over which it has control and which could avoid the  economy drifting into a 'low-growth trap' in the period ahead,” Parsons said.

Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa reported during her Budget Vote address that various tools, including Strategic Environment Assessments (SEAs), were being developed to help accelerate environmental authorisations, without undermining sound environmental-impact management principles.

SEAs are typically carried out on one or more large projects or programmes, as opposed to environmental-impact assessments (EIAs), which apply to specific projects.

However, DEA COO Lize McCourt stressed that SEAs were but one instrument that would be deployed, with others also available, such as the Environmental Management Framework.

“We have done detailed analysis of the 18 Sips and, together with the Sip coordinators and the nine provinces, looked at what will be the best approach in terms of environmental regulation for each one of those clusters,” McCourt explained.

It was anticipated, for instance, that the SEA approach could be deployed on the “linear” or “geographic” Sips, which included projects such as ‘Sip 1’ – an initiative designed to unlock the northern mineral belt through a logistics corridor linking the coalfields of the Waterberg, in Limpopo, with the export terminal at Richards Bay, in KwaZulu-Natal.

Molewa stressed that her department was integrally involved with the PICC, where it was providing regular feedback on the processing of environmental applications related to the Sips.

She also indicated her desire to eradicate the perception that EIAs were responsible for delays in the development of new infrastructure.

Director-general Nosipho Ngcaba added that there had already been material improvements in the processing of EIAs across the various competent authorities responsible for handling applications within legislated timeframes.

There were currently some 1 300 active EIA applications being considered by the nine provinces and the national department. These authorities had been found to be responsible for delays to only 65 applications, which was an improvement on previous performances. By contrast, the applicants themselves had delayed around 350 applications.

McCourt indicated that lessons were being drawn from the recent success in the processing of EIA applications related to the renewable-energy programme, where authorisations had been extended for projects collectively representing 25 000 MW of potential capacity.

Through that process it was found that certain EIA milestones could be achieved at a faster pace than outlined in the regulations, which had precipitated a redrafting of the regulations to shorten the timeframes.

Efforts were also being made to align EIA timeframes with those stipulated for water-use licences and those contained in the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act. The idea was to have a single approval process rather than several separate processes.

“The development of a management strategy for environmental-impact assessment on [the basis of an] integrated permitting system to address key concerns and constraints within the current environmental-impact management system are well under way,” Molewa reported.