ABSTRACT
Before 1994, the year in which South Africa officially joined the rest of progressive humanity to become a democratic state under Nelson Mandela, the country was in many cases perceived and treated as a pariah state owing to its racial discrimination or apartheid policies. During that period (at least from 1948 to 1993), South Africa pursued an inconsistent, albeit racially focused, approach to all policy-related matters, including those pertaining to the environment. It is in this regard that the South African government believes that “[t]here are clear links between the political history of South Africa and the social and natural environments” (DEAT, 1999b).
