K Mosunkutu: Annual Bontle ke Botho Clean and Green Awards

2 December 2006

Programme director: Mr Mandla Mentoor
The Executive Mayor of the host City, Councillor Masondo
Executive Mayor of the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Council, Mr Duma Nkosi
Members of Mayoral Committees and Councillors present
Head of Department, Mr Steven Cornelius
School principals and teachers present
Representative of our various communities
Learners present
Invited guests
Ladies and gentlemen

It is a pleasure to again have an opportunity to express my views on the
importance of this Clean and Green Campaign. I wish, from the outset, to thank
the organisers of this event and to commend all the participants in the Bontle
ke Botho programme.

Far too many people, by omission or commission, attach little value to the
issue of proper management of the environment. Perhaps pressure to make our
tomorrows better than the reality of today has tended to render issues of the
environment inconsequential.

The fact of the matter is that all of us entirely depend on the environment
and the services that it provides. The tomorrows that we continuously prepare
for will certainly be bleak if we do not adequately take care of our
environment. Like banks provide financial services, the ecosystem supply us
with services without which life would not be possible.

The basic material for a good life emanates from the environment. From the
bionetwork, we obtain provisioning services like food and water. Biodiversity
freely gives us regulating services. Wetlands, as an example, retard and reduce
the ferocity of storms whilst also purifying our water. Forests, Trees, dams
and parks allow us, among other services, recreational opportunities, as
another example. These are irrefutable facts.

Another incontrovertible reality is that we live at a time when drastic
measures must be taken to mitigate the destruction wreaked on the environment.
History has bestowed on our generation the historic task of reversing the
damage inflicted on the environment - ravages that threaten the very
availability of the services that we all depend on yet take for granted.

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, a research commissioned by the United
Nations, covering a period ending in 2005, shows that over the past fifty (50)
years, humans have changed the environment much more extensively than in any
comparable period in human history. Services that have borne the brunt of this
inconsiderateness include water supply, regulation of air quality, water
purification, soil erosion and moderation of climatic conditions, among
others.

We also know for a fact that some superpowers, in direct contravention of
the Kyoto protocols, continue to inflict incalculable damage to the
environment. The United States of America (USA) is amongst countries that
continue to unnecessarily emit dangerous gases to the environment - further
destroying the ozone layer.

We in South Africa are also doing our bit. Local industrialists release into
our groundwater and into the air that we breathe poisonous chemicals and gases.
Ordinary citizens have, consciously or otherwise, joined these culprits in the
destruction of our wetlands and in the clogging of our river systems. In this
regard, we would recall that 25% of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) originates
from the Crocodile Marico Water Management Area - an area whose river-health
status already is classified as poor. The industrial, mining and agricultural
activities in this area heavily rely on water resources. The impacts that of
this undermining of our water systems on our GDP - our livelihood - is not
really difficult to figure out.

Friends and colleagues, I know that we are here not to mourn this sad state
of affairs. Our duty and responsibility, as part of the people's government, is
to consolidate and lead in reversing this situation for the betterment of the
lives of our people. The role of the Bontle ke Botho programme in this scheme
of things is primarily to mitigate and to actually negate the effects of the
gratuitous destruction of our ecosystem. The Clean and Green project is aimed
at, among others, giving practical expression to what Confucius meant when he
said 'If you think in terms of a year, plant a seed; if in terms of ten years,
plant trees; if in terms of 100 years, teach the people.'

As we today celebrate the success of participants in the BKB, we
collectively need to prepare for the years ahead. Some participants, using the
BKB as the basis and further expanding on it, have established potentially
lucrative recycling projects. Plumbing and compost making projects have also
been established whilst another group has ventured into a toilet-paper making
venture, I've been informed.

The question we need to answer is - what else can we do to effectively
churn-out fruitful projects out of waste?

Using the 2010 world football games that will be staged in South Africa as a
basis, what else should we do to contribute not merely to waste management, but
towards a sustainable ecosystem? What role exists for BKB in relation to the
Local Municipal by-laws; by-laws that relate to littering and pollution? I
believe that the organisers of the BKB project, my officials, would not find it
really cumbersome to further nurture such creativity. You obviously are the
catalyst for arriving at this decision and in making it sustainable.

Rivers crisscross municipality wards and flow across Local Municipality
boundaries. The question is what is the role of our schools and municipalities
in relation to restoring the health of our river systems and the services that
we derive from these systems? Are there job creation opportunities in restoring
the health status of our rivers? My view is that, certainly, golden
opportunities can be developed from such initiatives. The business community
has a critical role in this regard.

In conclusion, allow me to wish all the participants in the 2006 Bontle ke
Botho Clean and Green campaign all of the best. I also wish to encourage us all
to go out and further popularise BKB to increase the number of participants in
the project. Our real victory lies in mass mitigation and reversal of the
damage inflicted on our ecosystem.

I thank you.

Issued by: Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Environment, Gauteng
Provincial Government
2 December 2006