Environmental Affairs minister, Edna Molewa, has published the adoption of the Gauteng Provincial Environmental Management Framework Standard in the Government Gazette.

The notice, which came into effective from 2 May 2018, contains a standard, as well as the exclusion of specific activities in certain areas within Gauteng, from the requirement to obtain environmental authorisation.

According to the department the standard aims to provide rules which must be complied with in order to ensure compliance to the national environmental management principles.

It also aims to foster sustainable development within the Gauteng Province, while ensuring compliance to management measures for activities, which are excluded from the requirement to obtain an environmental authorisation.

“The standard is applicable to activities excluded from acquiring an environmental authorisation, when undertaken within Zone 1 or Zone 5 of the Gauteng Provincial Environmental Management Framework,” the department notes.

“If the development triggers any other activity that is not excluded from the requirement to obtain an environmental authorisation in terms of the standard, the provisions of the standard are not applicable and an environmental authorisation must be obtained in terms of the Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations for all applicable identified activities in terms of section 24 National Environmental Management Act, 1998,”the department explains.