Programme Director;
Honourable Premier of the Eastern Cape province, Honourable Noxolo Kiviet;
MEC for Economic Development, Environmental Affairs & Tourism, Honourable Mcebisi Jonas;
Executive Mayor of the Buffalo City Metro, Cllr Zukiswa Ncitha;
Members of the Mayoral Committee;
Officials from various departments, municipalities and other institutions;
Members of the community;
Members of the media;
Ladies and gentlemen.
Molweni!
It gives me great pleasure to be back in this beautiful province that I have come to regard as my second home.
Only a few days ago, as part of the Water Week celebrations, I was in the eastern part of this province, in Lusikisiki. The same event gave me an opportunity to partly trace back my roots, and as part of that I attended a very moving church service in the Good Hope mission, the same church where my father plied his trade as a man of the cloth.
Not long ago, in February this year, I was in this province in the area of Kareedouw to celebrate with the people of this province the World Wetlands day, an international day we celebrate every year.
Today I am here to celebrate one of the achievements of our government in general and our department in particular. I can boldly claim that we are able to do all of the things that we do as this current government because of the inspiration we got from our forefathers who taught us the resilience we display today.
It is no exaggeration to claim that we are able to wake up everyday and face the challenges brought about by the new day because of the teachings of the father of our democracy, Tata Madiba. Please join me in wishing him a long and a healthy life.
Honourable Premier, we are gathered here today to further the promise made by our government to the people of this province. Our celebrations today emanate from your request to our department through our former Minister, Buyelwa Sonjica wherein you asked for Eco-Parks in Mdantsane and Duncan Village.
When we got that request from you about three years ago we knew that all you were asking for was a Service Delivery for a Sustainable Future. To us in the department there is no question about the need for development, but all we are saying, is that such development must be sustainable. Our view is that it was not by chance that when we adopted the constitution of the country in 1996 we made provision for the preservation of the environment for future generations.
This was a deliberate attempt to say, chasing short term gratification at the expense of our mother earth will have devastating effects not only on the current but to the generations to come.
We are all aware of the scramble by the world leaders to fight against the impacts of Climate Change, the degradation of our land as well as the continued exploitation of our natural resources including Rhino Poaching. South Africa continues to play a central role in those debates because of the promise we have made to our future generations through our constitution and legislations which are the envy of the world.
As the department of environmental affairs we have put a lot of processes and programmes in place to ensure the realisation of “a better life for all”, as envisaged by our icon, Tata Mandela. Through our Environmental Protection and Infrastructure Programme (EPIP), which is aligned to the Expanded Public Works Programme, we have recently been engaging with the municipalities, relevant provincial departments and public entities throughout the country to invite them to submit proposals for projects that will help us realise this Service Delivery for a Sustainable Future I spoke of earlier.
This programme is open to all project applications that support the mandate of the department, but specifically within the areas of Working on Waste, People & Parks, Greening & Open Space Management, Working for Land and Wildlife Economy. We put a strong emphasis on job creation as some of you may have observed with the project we are launching today.
As an attempt towards the realisation of the Service Delivery for a Sustainable Future we funded this project of Eco-Parks in Mdantsane and Duncan Village to a tune of 14,2 million Rands over a period of two years.
Honourable Mayor and members of the community you may not realise this, but in your backyard you have a model of how we want to create eco-parks across the country.
This project won three awards in December last year during our internal EPIP awards. It won the best project in the Eastern Cape province, the best project in the Greening & Open Space Management Focus area as well as the best National project overall. I therefore plead with you to take care of it as we will continue to refer other provinces to this project for learning and advice as we see it as among the best we have delivered.
In keeping with the spirit of the Service Delivery for a Sustainable Future in designing and constructing these parks we adopted sustainable management practices to reduce resource inputs and waste outputs. Recycled material was used for all park furniture in order to encourage the principles of reuse, reduce, recycle and recover in line with the National Waste Management Strategy. Furthermore, in order to encourage energy saving and use of renewable energy, these parks are powered by solar energy.
Unemployment remains one of the key challenges facing our country today, and such through these projects we always strive to employ as many people as we can. During the construction phase of these parks we had 186 local people who worked full-time for duration of no less than 20 months. Out of these people 61% of them were women, 46% were youth and 3% were people with disabilities.
Throughout the construction of phase of this project we ensured that there is a comprehensive skills development to assist the workers with the necessary skills so as to access the job market.
To this end we have facilitated various non-accredited training interventions such as Occupational Health & Safety, First Aid, Environmental Awareness, Life Skills, Community Project Management as well as Business skills. We have also ensured that workers are trained on accredited programmes such as Plant Production, Horticulture, Conservation Field Assistant as well Bricklaying & Plastering.
During the construction of these parks all the skills accumulated from these training interventions were put to use and we have no doubt that the investment into people of Mdantsane & Duncan Village has not gone to waste.
To the people who made this project a reality, the workers, I do want to say that if it was not for your hard work we would not be standing here today to celebrate this great initiative of Service Delivery for a Sustainable Future. Thank you for your resilience throughout the construction phase and we hope that the skills accumulated as well as the work ethic demonstrated will take your further.
Lastly, I would want to reiterate my plea to the Executive Mayor and the Buffalo City community to look after these assets as they have always done with all their assets.
As people of Buffalo City you know the kind of activities that used to take place in these spots that we have converted into these model parks today. You know very well that these used to be hideouts for criminal activities. I therefore urge you to ensure that this becomes a safe place for both the old and the young man and women of this beautiful city to come and enjoy themselves.
I thank you.
