The covenant of water: Public trusteeship, property, and the tradability of water use entitlements in South Africa

The inaugural lecture, “The covenant of water”, examines how law should govern a resource that no person, community, economy or ecosystem can live without, but that is scarce, ecologically vulnerable and historically distributed on profoundly unequal terms. It begins with the material water reality in South Africa: a naturally dry country in which approximately 98% of available water resources are already allocated, while pollution, ageing infrastructure, rising demand and climate change place the resource under growing pressure.

Against this background, the lecture advances three interconnected propositions. Firstly, water law is fundamentally a property question. Legal classifications shape allocation, and patterns of allocation have historically produced exclusion. The Constitution and the National Water Act 36 of 1998, however, recast water governance as a matter of dignity, equality, environmental protection and justice. Secondly, the “covenant of water” offers an ethical and interpretive lens for understanding the inherited condition of scarcity, inequality and institutional weakness in South Africa. Although this condition was inherited, the response to it must be consciously chosen. Thirdly, public trusteeship gives this covenant legal form by entrusting government with the protection, allocation and sustainable management of water for present and future generations.

The lecture then explores the “property puzzle” surrounding water-use entitlements: how the law can recognise their security and economic value without converting them into permanent private rights over a public resource. Particular attention is given to their transfer and trade, the Lötter judgment by the Constitutional Court and the idea of “covenanted transferability” –carefully regulated mobility in a public-law framework.

The lecture concludes by extending the covenant metaphor to professorship itself, presenting knowledge, authority and institutional space as trusts to be exercised through teaching, research, community engagement and academic leadership in the service of society.

The legal background to financial integrated reporting

In South Africa, the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 mandates all three spheres of government to work together through a system of cooperative governance to establish a society based on social justice. Despite this, the Constitution does not define what this commitment entails. In basic terms, this commitment primarily requires government to eradicate poverty and extreme inequalities in access to material resources in order to ensure that all citizens command the resources needed to participate equally in socio-political life. My research argues that given their legal mandate and a number of key features of developmental local government, South African cities are well positioned to contribute towards advancing this constitutional ideal. However, academic literature and government reports tell a familiar story: one of failing service delivery, poor financial management, widespread corruption in procurement, weak institutional capacity, insufficient accountability and widespread political instability. Without addressing these challenges and ensuring that there is accountability for procurement corruption, the pursuit of social justice will remain an elusive ideal for millions of South Africans who remain frustrated and deeply disappointed with the current state of affairs.

The legal background to financial integrated reporting

In South Africa, listed companies are in the process of complying with environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting. However, the compliance process is a work in progress and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) is currently in the process of implementing ESG requirements for listed companies, that is, JSE ESG metrics. This inaugural briefly focuses on the background to ESG and its development in South Africa, as well as the most recent developments in this regard with reference to international law principles, for example United Nations Global Compact. The inaugural also briefly examines the environmental, social and corporate governance legs of the JSE ESG metrics and the greenwashing of company business activities.