The South African Constitution gives people, including future generations, the right to sustainable development: “to have the environment protected, for the benefit of present and future generations, through reasonable legislative and other measures that prevent pollution and ecological degradation; promote conservation; and secure ecologically sustainable development and use of natural resources while promoting justifiable economic and social development.”
This particular way of outlining this right recognises environmental limits within which economic and social development can only occur.
Article 24 also puts environmental rights within the context of human health since: “Everyone has the right to an environment that is not harmful to their health of wellbeing.”
