Socio-Economic Rights | The Fuel Retailers Case

This case dealt with opposition by an organisation representing three white-owned petrol stations in a small town to the granting of permission to a black applicant to open a fourth petrol station. All the Judges on the Court agreed with an analysis by Justice Ngcobo on the important role environmental protection played in our new South Africa. The majority held that planning permission had been given by the Council before environmental protection regulations had been promulgated and had become out of date. Justice Sachs, however, stated that in granting permission the Council had in fact paid full and sufficient attention to environmental considerations, and the new black applicant should not be prevented from going ahead because of purely formal procedural objections raised, not by environmental groups, but by established white competitors.