Keynote address by Mr Narend Singh, MP; Deputy Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment; At the Captains of Industry Engagement of the Zululand Chamber of Commerce and Industry
Bon Hotel in Richards Bay
Programme Director;
Ms Hlengiwe Mvubu, President of the Zululand Chamber of Commerce and Industry;
Leadership of the Chamber;
Honourable MECs and Members of the Provincial Legislature;
Executive Mayors and municipal leadership;
Chief Executives and senior executives of our major industries;
Representatives of organised business and labour;
Development partners and investors;
Leaders of our communities;
Ladies and gentlemen;
Good morning.
Let me start by thanking the Zululand Chamber of Commerce and Industry for the invitation to address this Captains of Industry Engagement. The Chamber’s willingness to convene this conversation — bringing together industry, government, municipalities, state-owned entities, investors and development partners — reflects a maturity and a recognition that the environmental challenges facing Richards Bay cannot be solved by any one sector acting alone.
They require all of government working in partnership with all of business and all of community. That is the central message I want to leave with you today.
Richards Bay occupies a unique position in our national economy. Situated in the uMhlathuze Local Municipality, this city is one of the most highly industrialised areas in the country. This city contributes meaningfully to national economic growth, employment and export earnings. But alongside this industrial strength are residential areas — both rural and urban. These communities live with the cumulative impacts of industrial and domestic emissions.
Environmental protection is a basic requirement for long-term sustainability and prosperity. Section 24 of the Constitution gives every person the right to an environment that is not harmful and that must be protected for present and future generations. These words are familiar, but they bear repeating: environmental protection is not only about biodiversity or pollution control. It is about protecting people and ensuring that development improves lives without degrading the systems on which future generations depend.
This constitutional duty is shared across all three spheres of government. National government sets the policy and legislative framework. Provincial government deals with authorisations and compliance monitoring. Local government is responsible for the essential services that determine environmental outcomes on the ground: land-use planning, waste management, stormwater and air quality monitoring. Air pollution does not respect municipal boundaries, and emissions do not distinguish between spheres of government. Cooperative governance is therefore a practical necessity, not merely a constitutional ideal.
Community organisations and the business sector are equally important partners. Business has a direct stake in predictable regulation, reliable infrastructure and the social licence to operate. Community groups bring local knowledge, sustained attention to problems and the ability to mobilise practical support. Good environmental governance has never been about government acting alone. It depends on informed communities, credible science, responsible business, accountable institutions and active citizens. Lasting solutions only emerge when government, business and community work together with clear roles, shared data and a common understanding of priorities.
Richards Bay is one of the crown jewels of South African industry. It is home to some of the largest mining, mineral processing, manufacturing and export operations in the country. It is a gateway for our coal, our aluminium, our titanium, our fertiliser, our timber. It generates export earnings, employment and investment that this province — and this country — cannot afford to lose.
And yet, alongside this economic strength, communities in and around Richards Bay continue to raise concerns about air quality. Emissions from heavy industry. Coal dust from storage, handling and transport. Particulate matter. Industrial pollutants. These are not abstract concerns. They affect health. They affect the quality of life. They affect the trust between industry and the people who live beside it.
So the question is often framed as a trade-off: economy on one side, environment on the other. Growth or health. Jobs or clean air. I reject that framing entirely. But here is the truth I want to leave with you today: clean air is not the opposite of industrial development. It is the proof of it.
An industry that cannot manage its emissions is an industry that is not built for the future. A port that cannot handle its dust is a port that will lose its social licence — and, increasingly, its access to global markets. A city that cannot protect the health of its residents is a city that will struggle to attract the talent, the investment and the trust it needs to grow.
The world is changing. European markets are pricing carbon at the border. Investors are screening for environmental, social and governance performance. Consumers are asking harder questions about the supply chains behind the products they buy. The age of externalising environmental costs is ending. The question is not whether we will transition — it is whether we will lead that transition or be dragged into it. Richards Bay has every reason to lead.
The raison d’être for the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment is not merely to regulate. We are also here to partner. But let me be equally clear: we are also here to enforce. And both roles matter.
We are moving away from a one-size-fits-all model to place-based environmental management. Richards Bay is not the Highveld. It is not the Vaal Triangle. It has its own industrial profile, its own pollution sources, its own meteorological conditions, and its own community dynamics. Our interventions must reflect that reality.
That is why we are strengthening air quality monitoring infrastructure in the region — expanding the network of monitoring stations, improving data quality, and making that data publicly accessible through the South African Air Quality Information System. Communities have a right to know what they are breathing. Industry has a responsibility to know what it is emitting. And government has a duty to ensure that both are true.
We are also working towards the declaration of Richards Bay as a priority area under the National Environmental Management: Air Quality Act, where the evidence supports it. A priority area is not a punitive designation. It is a focused commitment — a recognition that this region requires coordinated, resourced, multi-stakeholder intervention to bring pollution levels within national standards.
Ladies and gentlemen, the coal terminal and bulk handling operations in this port are among the most significant sources of fugitive dust in the region. We are engaging with Transnet, with terminal operators, and with industry on a concrete programme to reduce dust at source — through improved handling practices, enclosed transfer points, water spray systems, wind screens, and tighter controls on coal stockpiles.
We are reviewing atmospheric emission licences to ensure they reflect current best practice, not outdated assumptions. We are working with industries to adopt cleaner production technologies and to reduce the intensity of emissions per unit of output. And we are supporting the shift towards lower-emission energy sources in industrial processes. None of this is easy. None of it is free. But it is cheaper than the alternative — for your bottom line, for your reputation, and above all, for the communities you operate alongside.
Let me be candid: we know that non-compliance exists. We know that some operators treat environmental regulations as a cost to be minimised rather than a standard to be met. We know that monitoring data is sometimes incomplete, and that enforcement action sometimes takes too long.
We are addressing this. Our Environmental Management Inspectors — the Green Scorpions — are being capacitated. Compliance monitoring in Richards Bay is being prioritised. And where we find wilful or repeated non-compliance, we will act. Not with hostility, but with the firmness the law requires and the public expects. But I want to say this to the captains of industry in this room: compliance is not a ceiling. It is a floor. The companies that will thrive in the decades ahead are not those that do the minimum to avoid a fine. They are those that treat environmental performance as a source of competitive advantage — because that is exactly what it is becoming.
No department, no company, and no municipality can solve this alone. We need a structured, honest, ongoing conversation. I am calling for the establishment of a Richards Bay Air Quality and Industrial Sustainability Forum — a standing platform bringing together DFFE, the provincial government, the uMhlathuze Municipality, industry, organised business, and community representatives. A forum where data is shared openly. Where problems are identified early. Where solutions are co-designed. Where progress is tracked and reported publicly. This forum must not become a talk shop. It must have clear terms of reference, measurable commitments, and independent oversight. And it must include the voices of the communities most affected — not as an afterthought, but as full participants.
We are implementing the Climate Change Act, which provides the legal architecture for sectoral emission targets, carbon budgets, and a just transition. We are working to ensure that industrial expansion — including in the Richards Bay Industrial Development Zone — takes place within a framework of responsible environmental stewardship.
This means that new industrial investment must be designed for a low-carbon, low-pollution future. It means that environmental impact assessments must be rigorous, not rubber stamps. It means that the just transition must be just — protecting workers and communities as we shift to cleaner technologies. And it means that we must seize the opportunities of green industrialisation: renewable energy, green hydrogen, the beneficiation of our minerals, and the circular economy. Richards Bay is not just a place to manage decline. It is a place to build the future.
So let me end with a proposal — a compact between us. To industry, I say: lead. Go beyond compliance. Invest in cleaner technology. Be transparent about your emissions. Engage your neighbouring communities not as adversaries, but as partners. And understand that your social licence to operate is not a permanent possession — it is earned every single day.
To government, I say: be consistent, be predictable, and be present. Provide clear standards and enforce them without fear, favour or prejudice. We must remember that we are a constitutional democracy and are all subject to the rule of law. As government we must cut the red tape that delays legitimate investment, whilst ever mindful of not cutting the corners that protect public health and the environment, today and into perpetuity. We must support municipalities with the capacity they need to monitor and manage air quality. And be honest about the trade-offs and the timelines.
Recent Constitutional Court jurisprudence underscores this very notion. In Sustaining the Wild Coast NPC and Others v Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy and Others [2026] ZACC 33, handed down on 14 August 2026, the Court restored the setting aside of an offshore exploration right granted to Impact Africa and later held with Shell. The majority, per Kollapen J, held that a just and equitable remedy under section 172 of the Constitution must vindicate the rights that were breached — including section 24 — and that financial investment cannot be elevated so as to outweigh grave constitutional violations. The Court confirmed that original defects in decision-making — the failure of meaningful consultation, the failure to consider climate change and coastal protection, and the failure to apply the precautionary principle — cannot simply be papered over later. That is the rule of law in practice: process must be lawful at the outset; corners cut in the name of expediency or sunk costs do not become lawful with time. For government, the lesson is to be present, consistent and lawful — to facilitate investment that is properly authorised, while refusing to treat environmental and community rights as residual afterthoughts. That lesson is not confined to offshore exploration.
In the Highveld Priority Area litigation involving the State, Eskom and Sasol, the courts have confirmed that persistently poor air quality can itself amount to a breach of section 24, and that government cannot treat the duty to plan, monitor and enforce as optional where communities live with cumulative industrial emissions. Richards Bay is not the Highveld. But the principle is the same: lawful development and clean air are not sequential choices. They must travel together. For industry, the lesson is equally clear: social licence, consultation and environmental due diligence are not boxes to be ticked after the fact. They are conditions of lawful development.
To communities, I say: your voice matters. Your health matters. Your patience has been remarkable, but it should not be taken for granted. We will create the platforms for you to be heard — and we will hold ourselves and industry accountable for what we promise here today.
That partnership is not only a future commitment. It is already taking shape on the ground. Following my intervention, together with the provincial and local spheres of government, we conducted a hackathon along the greenbelt in Brackenham Township here in Richards Bay. Together we removed alien invasive species and cleared dumped waste from that corridor. My Department was also able to provide gardening implements to three schools in Brackenham — a modest but practical contribution to environmental education and school food gardens.
Regrettably, two schools were omitted from that first handover: Aquadene Secondary School and Floraton Primary School.
I am pleased to advise today that, in partnership with Mondi, I will be handing over tools, materials and seedlings to those schools so that they too can take part in this work.
Tools and materials
- Wheelie bins
- Rakes
- Watering cans
- Gloves
- Refuse bags
- Three hoes
- One hose pipe (12 mm × 20 m)
- Two wheelbarrows
- Three spades
- Two buckets with a tap
- Five boxes of printing paper
Seedlings
- Two trays of spinach
- Two trays of beetroot
- Two trays of onion
- Two trays of green pepper
- Two trays of cabbage
- Two orange trees
These may be small items. But they are not a small signal. They say that environmental stewardship is not only a matter of licences, stacks and monitoring stations. It is also a matter of a greenbelt that is cleared, a school garden that is planted, and a child who learns that the environment is something we tend — together.
Richards Bay has always been a place of industry and enterprise. It has been a place of hard work and honest labour. It has been a place where South Africa’s minerals meet the world. Let it also be known as a place where industry learned to breathe. Where economic growth and environmental health advanced together. Where the sound of ships leaving the harbour was matched by the sound of children playing outside, unafraid.
That is not a dream. It is a choice. And it is a choice we make together — starting today.
I thank you.
Enquiries:
Zolile Nqayi
Cell: 082 898 6483
E-mail: znqayi@dffe.gov.za
#GovZAUpdates
