The Government-and-Society Challenge in a Fledgling Democracy — Ecosystem Governance in South Africa, with a Particular Focus on the Management of the Phongolo Floodplains and Reservoir

South African political reform coincided with a global trend in the reform of water resource management. Consequently, South Africa is an excellent case study in the role of water in addressing historic socio-economic inequity while at the same time trying to legislate for sustainable development. Undoing the legacy of more than a century of institutionalised discrimination is a complex undertaking made even more problematic by the fact that water scarcity constraints limit the future South African economic potential. Getting it right is therefore a political necessity and also a necessary condition for the future wellbeing of a country that plays a vital role as the engine of growth on the African continent. This chapter charts the evolution of a fledgling democracy in which water resources management is seen as a vehicle for social and environmental justice as well as a tool for deepening the democratic experience. The case of the Phongolopoort Dam is used to illustrate these complexities.