What is a section 24G rectification application?

Section 24G and why it exists

Section 24G of the National Environmental Management Act 107 of 1998 was introduced to give a regulatory route to landowners and developers who commenced a listed activity, or continued one, without the environmental authorisation required under section 24. It is not an amnesty. It is a formal application that can be refused, and refusal leaves the underlying contravention unresolved.

Commencing a listed activity without authorisation is also a criminal offence under section 24F of NEMA, carrying its own separate penalties. A section 24G application addresses the administrative consequence, not the criminal one, and the two can run in parallel.

The administrative fine

Section 24G(3) allows the competent authority to impose an administrative fine of up to R10 million, calculated with reference to factors such as the severity of environmental harm, whether the applicant benefited financially from the contravention, and the extent of cooperation shown. The fine is separate from the compliance costs of remediation the authority may also require.

In practice the fine is rarely the statutory maximum for smaller developments, but it is assessed on the facts of each matter, and authorities have become markedly less lenient since roughly 2020. A poorly prepared application, or one that understates the contravention, tends to attract a higher fine and closer scrutiny than a properly disclosed one.

Directive risk before you apply

Before or instead of a section 24G application, the department can issue a compliance notice or directive under section 28 or section 31L of NEMA requiring work to stop and requiring rehabilitation. Where a directive has already been issued, the rectification application must be dealt with alongside compliance with that directive, not as a substitute for it.

Ignoring a directive while a section 24G application is pending is a further offence. The correct sequence is to respond to any directive, commission the required environmental assessment, and lodge the rectification application concurrently.

What the rectification application must contain

A section 24G application must include a full description of the contravention, an environmental impact assessment equivalent in scope to what would have been required had authorisation been sought before commencement, a public participation process, and a compliance statement addressing the fine factors listed in the Regulations.

Because the assessment is done retrospectively, specialist reports often need to assess actual impacts rather than predicted ones, which can require additional site investigation, historical aerial imagery and monitoring data not needed in a standard application.

Timelines

A straightforward section 24G application, where the contravention is limited and no directive dispute is outstanding, typically takes four to eight months from instruction to a decision. More complex matters involving multiple listed activities, sensitive receiving environments or an active directive can take twelve months or longer.