Review
   Patrick Bond (2002) Unsustainable South
  Africa: environment, development and social
  protest. Scottsville: University of Natal Press,
  London: Merlin Press.
  Catherine Oelofse and Victoria Lubke
  Introduction
  Patrick Bond's hard-hitting book on environment and development in
 post-apartheid South Africa is both personal and provocative. The author
  develops a strong and convincing argument based on his own radical
 perspective, presenting the factors that he believes underpin environmental
 decision making in South Africa. Second, he identifies and links particular
 individuals to projects and decisions made in planning and development
 post-1994, thereby making individuals responsible and accountable for the
 'unsustainability' of South Africa. He is highly critical of the ruling party's
 approach to development, which acts in imperial not local interests.
 However, Bond also highlights that 'the core of the problem we must never
 forget is systemic: global capitalism, augmented by patriarchy, racism/
 ethnicism, anthropocentrism, religious bigotry, and many other easy vices'
 (2002:xvi).
    Bond supports an alternative approach to the sustainable development
debate since he criticises weak sustainability or ecological modernisation
and calls for a new approach based on social, ecological and environmental
justice. He states that a weak sustainability approach is maintained within
a neoliberal strategy that has been adopted in the country during the first
eight years of transition. The rhetoric of sustainable development is present
in legislation, policies and programmes but the environmental destruction
on the ground is intensifying. Bond critically explores why this is so.
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Catherine Oeiofse and Victoria Lubke
Broad approaches and key arguments
With the memory of the much-publicised World Summit on Sustainable
Development (WSSD), still fresh in our minds, Bond's new book comes at
an opportune time. Hosted by South Africa in Johannesburg in August
2002, the WSSD disappointed those expecting stronger commitments to
the original intentions of the United Nations Declaration on Environment
and Development drawn up at the Rio summit in 1992.
    Within this context, Bond explores South Africa's progress towards
achieving sustainability. The central argument of his book is that during the
first period of democratic rule in South Africa, from 1994 until now,
'government's attempts to improve environment and development failed
miserably' (2002:18). He argues that in the transition from apartheid to
democracy, government has succumbed to a World Bank-inspired
neoliberalism. In the process, much of the ANC's original intentions
outlined in its Reconstruction and Development Programme have been
sidelined or watered down. Socio-ecological progress has been set back
partly by conditions inherited from the apartheid government but also from
unaltered power relations, and the current government' s economic priorities
geared towards globalisation and trade liberalisation. Bond concludes that
'although on the surface, the ruling party's practices appear grounded in
stakeholder ideology, in reality they cement apartheid-capitalism's social,
economic, geographic and ecological legacy' (2002:20).
    Bond implicitly uses concepts and methods (discourse analysis)
developed by Hajer (1995) and Dryzek (1997) among others, which
criticise ecological modernisation and propose alternative approaches to
sustainability. He identifies three distinctive environmental-developmental
discourses that have emerged internationally and in the South African
context—neoliberalism, sustainable development/ecological modernisation,
and environmental/socio-ecological justice. He argues that the' overarching
rhetoric associated with the post-apartheid state's environmental policy'
 (2002:19) is sustainable development. This discourse works positively
with the neoliberalisation discourse but excludes environmental justice's
 core issues, and hence remains as weak sustainability. By exploring five
specific aspects of development in South Africa (water and sanitation,
 energy, waste, land use, and pollution), the book considers the role of these
 different discourses in determining government policy and action.
    Part One of the book explores the legacy of apartheid-capitalism, as well
 as
    the common discourses associated with the environment-development
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   debate in South Africa. This section also introduces the five aspects of
  development mentioned above. Part Two focuses on two unsustainable
  developmentprojects - the planned Coega Port and Industrial Development
  Zone (IDZ), and the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. The book then
  moves onto unsustainable policies in Part Three, focusing on the
  government's infrastructure policy, in particular water and electricity
  delivery. Lastly, Part Four is devoted to a deeper analysis of South Africa' s
  macro-economic policies, the WSSD and the eco-socialist response.
  A development-environment discourse approach
  Bond's use of a discourse approach provides an effective framework for
  analysing the current development-environment context of South Africa.
 However, his argument would have been strengthened had he outlined and
  explored in more detail the theory and concepts proposed by Hajer (1995)
 and Dryzek (1997), among others. He alludes to discourse analysis and
 ecological modernisation but does not provide a clear theoretical argument
 to frame his ideas. The book provides a detailed and argumentative
 approach, and is aimed at a wide audience; however, a short section on the
 theory of environmental politics would have been useful.
    The book's main objective is to reveal the discursive basis to environment
 and development projects, policies and politics. Bond describes the
 neoliberal discourse as dominated by the free-market principle of
 maximising GDP. This discourse gives limited attention to associated
 environmental problems, and the provision of free lifeline services to the
 poor receives little support. In contrast, the sustainable development
 discourse takes more account of the long-term environmental costs of
development. It does this by using technical reformist approaches to bring
environmental externalities into the marketplace (ecological modernisation).
The vagueness of the concept of sustainable development has enabled it to
be incorporated into neoliberal approaches, without requiring real
transformation in how the political economy operates. Alternatively called
ecological modernisation, 'this discourse incorporates green business
practices, and is based on faith in science and technology, instrumental
rationality, and an ideological commitment to market democracy' (2002:33).
    The third discourse, environmental justice, provides a radical alternative,
by putting moral and distributional issues at the forefront, questioning
capitalism's ability to bring about real environmental and social
sustainability. The values of the environmental justice movement are
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Catherine Oelofse and Victoria Lubke
embodied in the South African Constitution's Bill of Rights. 'Critical
ecology movements', described by Jamison (2002:33), draw upon the
environmental justice discourse, by promoting a communicative rationality
and deliberative democracy, while remaining sceptical of green business
and science and technology. The main problem experienced by critical
ecology movements (also referredto as 'red-greenpolitics') is fragmentation
based on different forms of environmentalism, and related information and
knowledge. However, Bond fails to address the differences between eco-
social justice and environmental justice. He does not define the terminology,
and uses these terms interchangeably and rather loosely. The lack of
theoretical rigour in places detracts from the arguments being presented.
Unsustainable projects
Bond goes further than an analysis of these discourses, by exploring 'how
these divergent arguments have competed to win public policy favour
within South Africa's first democratic government, led by the ANC
(2002:34). The case studies of unsustainable projects and policies in Parts
Two and Three provide the context for uncovering the conflicts between
different groups representing these divergent discourses. The proposed
Coega port and IDZ and the Lesotho Water Highlands Project are excellent
case studies of large projects espousing sustainable development principles,
while being largely geared, in fact, towards the neoliberal agenda.
   The book argues that the unsustainability of the Coega project relates to
the high state subsidies involved, the opportunity costs of resources
(including water, air and electricity), and the severe environmental
degradation that will result if the project goes ahead. The project has been
criticised from economic, environmental and political viewpoints. An
alternative development strategy for the region, proposed by local
community and environmental activists (the Sustainability Coalition),
wou provide far more employment and other socio-economic opportunities
without the high associated costs of Coega. Bond provides a well-reasoned
argument and a wealth of information supporting the alternative option. He
and the ^ a g e n d a s a n d i n t e r e s t s °ftne individuals driving the project
        e government officials who, through their silence or inability to take
action, support the project.
                                                          (  )
o f ? e w t w R
World Bank               "* d e t e r m i n i n S t h e (un)sustainability of projects. The
                 w
                   as the key roleplayer in organising technical, financial,
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                                                                          Review
   social and environmental information relating to the proj ect. Environmental
  justice critics of the project argued that on legal, scientific and economic
  grounds, the human and environmental damage of the project had not been
  internalised, as argued in the sustainable development discourse used by
  the World Bank and the South African government. The project failed to
  deal appropriately and justly with the displacement of Lesotho highlands
  households and the consequent effects on the livelihoods of others through
  lost land; other potential ecological problems such as soil erosion and
  sedimentation were not considered at the outset; the resultant rising water
  costs have impacted hardest on Gauteng's township residents; and the
  project has been beset by corruption scandals.
     Both local and international environmental lobbyists, churches and
 NGOs took up the challenge of demanding answers and compensation for
 the environmental damage and costs related with the LHWP. As Bond
 argues, 'the LWHP has become an important symbol of the extent to which
 the post-apartheid South African government is willing to listen and
 respond to socio-environmental justice critiques of its policies and pet
 projects' (2002:136). This case study provides a useful exploration of the
 limitations of the sustainable development/ecological modernisation
 rhetoric, which often acts as a screen for purely neoliberal policies and
 practices. It also reflects on the role of corruption in ensuring that
 unsustainable projects can go ahead.
 Unsustainable policies
Part Three moves to a review of the ANC government's infrastructure
policies, highlighting how the World Bank has influenced the transition of
these policies from the original ANC electoral mandate to the neoliberal
policies of today. Bond focuses on water and electricity infrastructure
provision, revealing that little has changed between the previous apartheid
regime's policies and those of the ANC government. Again this illustrates
the dominance of the neoliberal agenda and its insistence on 'getting the
prices right', avoiding cross-subsidisation of services for the poor, and
pursuing privatisation in services provision. In particular, Bond highlights
how the dominant service delivery policies of the 1990s profoundly
conflict with the Constitution's socio-economic rights clauses.
    Apart from limited access to affordable services to the poor, the negative
environmental implications of government infrastructure policy include
environmental hazards and health issues. These relate to pollution of
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Catherine Oelofse and Victoria Lubke
around water and rivers from inappropriate or *on-existent sanitation
fences ptor or non-existent drainage systems, and health costs from
 Z p r o p r S e energy sources. Competing perspectives on infrastructure
S e s are neatly presented in tabular form (2002:241), comparing the
neoliberal and critical (eco-socialist) viewpoints. An interesting point is
* e extent to which government has gone against its own ConsUtution and
legislation in the pursuit of market-dominated approaches. The Nationa
EnvironmentalManagementAct(1998)andtheNationalWaterAct(1998)
are both underpinned by sustainable development and even ecological and
social justice discourses. However, the interpretation of the law has; not yet
 gone far enough to ensure environmental justice in practice. Sadly, the
 poor are the losers through the commodification of water and other
 essential services. The impact of such policy decisions is explored using
 the case of the recent cholera epidemic.
     Energy issues in South Africa are explored by focusing on the unequal
 distribution of power. The environmental injustice of air pollution, where
 the poor absorb the costs of cheap electricity but do not receive the benefits,
 is examined. Bond considers the policies and programmes of Eskom in
  securing power for the powerful. He considers the transformation of this
  large parastatal and suggests that inequality in access to energy is still a
  critical problem in South Africa. Eskom continues to be a target of dissent
  owing to its privatisation, poor environmental performance, its policy to
  cut power to those who cannot afford it, inadequate power supply to poor
  households, and its reduction in its rural electrification programme.
      Bond provides a detailed analysis of the rise of civil society in Soweto
  as a result of power cuts. He explores how the Soweto Electricity Crisis
   Committee's Operation Khanyisa operated at both a local and global level
   to challenge basic rights to energy. He ends this chapter by considering the
   energy and environment debate in South Africa, focusing on the high levels
   of pollution created by energy from coal. The issue of sustainable energy
   was a key focus of the WSSD that became marginalised as states withdrew
   their support for cleaner energy policies and programmes. Bond suggests
   that South Africa needs to produce a new energy strategy for the country
    and he provides useful recommendations and key points that should be
    considered.
    An eco-socialist agenda?
    In his conclusion, Bond investigates regional eco-development alternatives
    in the context of regional power relations, and within the broader global
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    context. He also returns to discuss the World Summit on Sustainable
    Development - how its commodification of nature and life has eroded the
    original intentions of sustainable development and the eradication of
   poverty and environmental degradation. In South Africa, while its policies
   and legislation and its 'right-based rhetoric' contain many radical intentions
   to ensure environmental justice, its conservative practices reflect, above
   all, the discourse of the dominant economic players both nationally and
   internationally. In response to the current development-environment reality,
   Bond calls for an eco-socialist conception of environmental management
   for South Africa. This will require popular mobilisation and 'an increasing
   convergence of green, brown, feminist, radical/ethnic justice, and class
   politics' (2002:421-2). As Harvey argues, this requires
         making the quest for environmental and social justice central rather
         than peripheral concerns ... the environmental justice movement has
         to radicalise the ecological modernisation discourse. (1996:401)
  A critique of 'Unsustainable SA'
  Bond provides a critical and eye-opening account, using a great deal of
  information and research to support his argument. The book is dense and
  multi-layered, which perhaps illustrates the complexities of the environment-
 development debate at local, national and international level. A great deal
 of information is presented, which makes the book difficult to digest on a
 first reading. However, it provides a useful source of information on
 sustainability issues in South Africa. In places Bond does not support the
 statements he makes with enough substantive evidence and this makes the
 reader question whether these are personal or empirically sound judgements.
     In his analysis, Bond has tended to focus more on social justice and basic
 human rights issues rather than the strong links between the natural
 environment and social problems (although these are covered as well). This
 may be in part because of his focus on urban issues, particularly service
 delivery and the associated costs to the urban poor. Another reason could
be the ability of urban communities to mobilise around shared servicing
issues more effectively than the rural poor, which has resulted in their
issues receiving more attention. He also does notplace enough emphasis on
green agenda issues, saying little about who should play an advocacy role
for the natural environment. In adopting an eco-socialist discourse and in
questioning the sustainability of South Africa, he needed to consider the
intrinsic value and rights of the natural environment too, thereby addressing
the red, the brown and the green.
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Catherine Oelofse and Victoria Lubke
   Trevor Ngwane's comment on the back cover is useful: 'A monumental
work The information is political dynamite, crucial for those of us who
believe the way forward leads from exhausted nationalist politics to a post-
capitalist society where environment is taken seriously1. Perhaps the
greatest warning provided by the book is the role of individuals in
promoting or undermining sustainability in South Africa. Bond makes the
critical point that it is the officials who adopt sustainable development
speak within a neo-liberal strategy, the consultants who implement the
weak sustainability approach, focusing on their own agenda and interests,
South Africa's growing tradition of' captive regulators', and ministers who
push unsustainable development for their own political careers and power
that are responsible for environmental destruction and the resultant social
problems of South Africa. He clearly believes silence is a form of consent.
It is time for those who sit on the fence and who adopt the neo-liberal,
technocentric approaches of ecological modernisation to be made
accountable for how they contribute to the environmental crisis in South
Africa. As individuals and collective groups we can make a difference: we
need to be part of and support the rise of civil society in securing social,
ecological and environmental justice in South Africa.
References
 Dryzek, J S (1997) The Politics of the Earth: environmental discourses. Oxford:
     Oxford University Press.
 Hajer, M (1995) The Politics of Environmental Discourse: ecological modernisation
     and the policy process. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
 Harvey, D (1996) Justice, Nature and the Geography of Difference. Oxford:
     Blackwell.
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