Transforming water resource governance in South Africa using an ‘untransformed’ law: the courts and the National Water Act of 1998

The South African National Water Act 32 of 1998, praised as a pioneering law setting a global standard for water resource governance, introduced modern concepts for integrated water resources management, efficient water use, and sustainable development. It made water a public resource under state trusteeship, a departure from the colonial and apartheid approach that favoured private rights in a public resource. However, an analysis of recent South African jurisprudence reveals that these theoretical qualities often mask a compromised legal reform process that perpetuates historical inequitable rights. This article argues for targeted policy and legal reforms to the water legislation, the National Water Act 1998, to enable substantive transformation and reallocation, without compromising efficient, beneficial, and sustainable water use.