Water and Environmental Affairs Deputy Minister Rejoice Mabudafhasi to open the 8th Air Quality Lekgotla in Cape Town

29 Sep 2013

Deputy Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, Ms Rejoice Mabudafhasi, MP, will open the 8^th annual Air Quality Governance Lekgotla. This year’s Lekgotla will be convened under the theme: “Towards the First Decade of Unified and Sustainable Air Quality Governance in South Africa”.

The aim of the Lekgotla is to provide air quality officials from the national, provincial and local spheres of Government with an opportunity to reflect on the interventions implemented since the promulgation of the National Environmental Management: Air Quality Act (No. 39 of 2004) (AQA) with a focus on the successes and challenges faced by the officials in the implementation of the AQA. It further aims to derive possible interventions and solutions towards the improvement of air in the national, provincial and local jurisdictions.

The Air Quality Governance Lekgotla provides a platform for a robust discussion and debate viable ways and means through which air quality management challenges can be addressed. It is also a platform that allows officials to devise practical solutions towards improvement of air in the country. The Lekgotla is also an opportunity for coordination and capacity building in air quality management.

The Lekgotla will be executed through the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the DEA and National Association for Clean Air (NACA). In accordance to the MoU, the Air Quality Governance Lekgotla will be followed by a Multi-stakeholder Workshop on 2 October 2013, hosted in collaboration with NACA at which the government officials interact with various air quality management stakeholders to discuss issues of common interest. All relevant stakeholders are invited to attend the Multi-Stakeholder workshops.

The topics for the 2013 Multi-stakeholder workshops are as follows: