Programme director
Limpopo MEC for Economic Development, Environment and Tourism: Mr Pitsi Moloto
Limpopo MEC for Local Government and Housing: Mr Soviet Lekganyane
Mpumalanga MEC for Economic Development, Environment and Tourism: Mr Norman Mokoena
Mpumalanga MEC for Co-Operative Governance and Traditional Affairs: Mr Madala Masuku
North West MEC for Economic Development, Environment and Tourism: Ms Tebogo Modise
CEO’s of Public Entities
Distinguished guests
Waste Management Officers from various Municipalities
Members of the media
Ladies and Gentlemen
I am elated to be part of the Second Waste Management Officers Khoro here in the beautiful province of Limpopo. This year’s Khoro is taking place at a time when we join the world in mourning the passing-on of Africa’s heroine, environmental activist and a brave Nobel Laureate recipient, Wangari Maathai, who dedicated her entire life to the advocacy for the environment, sustainable development, human rights and the emancipation of the marginalised and rural women.
President Jacob Zuma declared 2011 as the year of job creation, hence the 2011 Waste Khoro’s theme: “accelerating service delivery and creating jobs in waste”.
As a country, we have made significant progress in introducing legislative mechanisms for environmental management including the well-known National Environmental Management Act (the NEMA) as well as the recent promulgation of the Waste Act which came into effect two years ago (1 July 2009).
Despite this, we still face environmental challenges from time to time and unless we are able to translate these good pieces of legislation into actual service delivery on the ground, the people will not see the effects and benefits.
Our streets are still full of litter; when you walk or drive around the streets in most townships; you still find litter flying around. More than 40% of households are still not receiving waste services and these are mostly the poorest communities.
The Waste Act has introduced the waste management hierarchy, which essentially means that we must concentrate on waste avoidance and minimisation, then reuse and recycling, creation of energy before concentrating on treatment and safe disposal of waste. This hierarchy must be the driving force behind the provision of waste services whereby as government we lead from the front before we tell industry to practice it.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are gathered today, at this second waste management officer’s Khoro, to look at what government can collectively focus on to ensure that waste services are accelerated and in the process; jobs are created for the benefit of all citizens.
The waste sector has a potential to create sustainable jobs by way of extending waste services to the un-serviced areas and improving waste collection systems in serviced areas. As we have seen in the video played this morning, waste services are already been provided in most of our urban settings but with the growing number of settlements including informal settlements, government capacity is extremely stretched.
In this regard, there is a need for this conference to look at innovative, practical solutions to this growing challenges; including adoption of labour intensive mechanisms; lower cost technologies and efficient use of resources.
As we all know, the National Treasury has in 2010; increased the allocations for waste services. I am urging our local government colleagues who are here to be ambassadors of this waste service, and ensure that funds are used for waste services.
This is not because waste is the only service but forms part of sustainable livelihoods. Imagine how it would be like if we give people houses, water, electricity but no waste collection service. The health of the people will be at stake not to mention the environment. Therefore I emphasise a need for a holistic, integrated approach when it comes to building sustainable settlements for our people.
Recognising the fact that fiscal allocations require parallel revenue collection systems and waste services are dependent on cost reflective tariffs, the people who can afford to pay for the service must pay for the service in order to sustain the services.
In this regard, the department is driving the development of a tariff setting guideline for Municipalities which will assist in setting localised cost reflective tariffs and I urge Municipalities to participate in that process, to ensure that it comes up with a practical useful tool.
We must continue to acknowledge that in this country, we have households who are indigent and cannot afford to pay for services and that is why cabinet approved the implementation of the National Policy for the Provision of Basic Refuse Removal Services to the Indigent Households in 2010. Implementation of this policy will assist in dealing with waste service backlogs targeting the poor, ensuring access to sustainable services.
Our interest is also to ensure that the environment is protected therefore waste services must be provided in accordance with the National Domestic Waste Collection Standards which came into effect early this year. The standards also define different levels of service and provide guidance on different service options.
Although waste services are provided by local government, it will take collective effort from provinces as well as relevant national departments to ensure that practical support is provided to local government to strengthen its capacity to accelerate the services. This is one of the things I will be discussing with my colleagues at the roundtable discussion today. A lot of effort and resources have continuously been given in the form of training, the department is running a training programme for landfill site managers as we speak, and this year we are training a total of 450 officials across the country.
This is just one example of what we mean by practical support. Government is also looking at other support mechanisms including the Cities Support Programme which is still under development led by the National Treasury, and other initiatives as part of the green economy agenda.
This year we are hosting COP 17 in Durban, and my view is that we must not only impress the delegates through the provision of waste separation bins at the venues, but we must sustain it post COP 17. We have seen how we managed to implement the waste separation systems in stadiums during the 2010 soccer tournament, but we should do it continuously, and government working with the private sector, must drive such initiatives to promote recycling.
I know some of the Municipalities have already started introducing separation at source and this is very good and must be supported. The area where we can maximise separation is also at our public spaces, as this will educate the people and progressively our society will get used to the culture of separating waste into recyclable and non-recyclable.
There is a need to educate the public and create awareness and I believe this Khoro will also look at innovative approaches for education and awareness on waste management and I look forward to recommendations from your deliberations.
We have almost come to the conclusion of the development of the National Waste Management Strategy, which I believe most of you participated in the process, and central to the Strategy, is the provision of waste services, driving the recycling economy, development of Integrated Waste Management Plans, treatment of waste and safe disposal of waste as a last resort.
It is important that the collected waste is safely disposed in licensed waste disposal sites which are operated in an environmentally sound manner. The department is in discussion with the relevant stakeholders on how to deal with a backlog of unlicensed waste disposal sites and we are ready to provide the necessary support and guidance to drive this.
Ladies and gentlemen, we will be launching the Strategy early next year and we are still engaging with the relevant approval structures of government in this regard. This does not stop us from implementing the provisions of the Waste Act.
A lot of municipalities have already designated Waste Management Officers in writing and I applaud you for that, but I urge all others to follow suit and ensure that the Waste Management Officers are given the necessary support to undertake their duties.
Integrated Waste Management Plans form the basis for planning for waste services, and we must endeavour to put them in place and ensure that they form part of the IDPs and that resources are provided to implement the Plan. This must also be informed by the delivery targets set in the Local Government Turnaround Strategy and the Outcomes Delivery Agreements of government.
Central to this, is the institutional capacity available at local government level, to provide the services and continuous engagement is required in this regard.
This Khoro marks a series of many to come, as this is now an annual gathering. Let us ensure that this process provides a platform for information exchange and knowledge sharing and assist us in setting milestones as government, to continuously improve on delivering our mandates
I am very convinced that services can be provided to the people irrespective of where they live.
I have experienced very innovative approaches in Thulamela Local Municipality, where they are creating jobs and cleaning the streets through the “Eco Towns” initiative and I know many Municipalities have great initiatives such as this. Please invite me to come and see your projects as I will continually support community upliftment projects which aim at providing a better life for communities.
Ladies and gentlemen, let me take this opportunity to thank you all for honouring my invitation and I wish you very fruitful and robust engagements in the commissions and we look forward to your recommendation as experts in this field.
I thank you.
Keynote address delivered by Honourable Deputy Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, Ms Rejoice Mabudafhasi during the 2nd Waste Management Officer’s Khoro at Bolivia Lodge, Polokwane, Limpopo Province
