An appraisal of the judicial enforcement of environmental protection in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Zimbabwe is currently experiencing a myriad of environmental challenges such as water pollution, land pollution, air pollution, illegal mining, veld fires, deforestation, land degradation, an inadequate quantity and quality of water resources, habitat destruction and loss of biodiversity, among others. Some of the underlying causes of these environmental challenges in the country include poor institutional capacity and weak governance structures which are underpinned by corruption, weak legislation and the poor implementation of laws. The country adopted a new Constitution in 2013, which makes provision for environmental rights in section 73. The Constitution has therefore become the overarching legal framework for environmental protection in Zimbabwe. The Constitution stipulates how one may approach the courts in a case of the infringement of one's rights in terms of section 85. This creates a civil rights-based approach to the enforcement of environmental laws, although there is evidence to suggest that the approach is grossly underutilised because of the expensive nature of civil litigation and the lack of environmental education among citizens, among other reasons. On the other hand, the Environmental Management Act, which is the principal framework environmental law, provides for a criminal-based (command and control) approach, where standards are set in the first place with criminal sanctions ensuing for non-compliance. Both approaches rely largely on the judiciary for adjudication in cases of breached environmental law. It is against this backdrop that this study sought to investigate how and to what extent the judiciary in Zimbabwe has advanced environmental protection through their judgements.