Agriculture, Conservation and Environment, at the Public Participation
gathering held at the Braamfontein Hotel
20 March 2007
Programme Director: Dr Steven Cornelius,
Representatives of political parties present,
Executive Mayor of the Host City, Councillor Amos Masondo,
Mayors and members of the various Mayoral Committees present,
Councillors, officials from national, provincial and local governments,
Representatives of the business community,
Non-Governmental Organisations and Community Based Organisations present,
Invited guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is a pleasure to have this opportunity to officially open this important
gathering. Indeed, I feel honoured to have been given an opportunity to welcome
you all and to invite you to freely participate in deliberations that
essentially explore what else needs to be done to ensure the realisation of our
constitutional obligation to manage our environment for the health and
wellbeing of all our people.
We know that waste is generally associated with unsightly litter and the
nuisance of flies. It is also linked to masses of waste in open spaces in and
out townships where hazardous health waste is also dumped. Waste is associated
with filth and terrible smells that emanate from informal settlements and from
rivers that have become habitats of animal carcasses.
Some in the business sector also contribute to this perception by also
dumping their waste in these neighbourhoods. These perceptions are not
incorrect.
There is much more to waste than the discomforts that I've referred to.
Affirming the importance of effective management of waste to people's
wellbeing, Chapter 20 of Agenda 21 of the United Nations asserts that
'Effective control of the generation, storage, treatment, recycling and reuse,
transport, recovery and disposal of hazardous wastes is of paramount importance
for proper health, environmental protection, natural resource management, and
sustainable development.'
As a Government, we are not off the mark in terms of understanding this
truth about waste. Neither are we off the mark in terms of realising the
dialectical relationship between the quest for a better life and proper and
effective management of our eco-system. The Bill that we all shall be
interrogating in this gathering seeks to streamline waste management for the
wellbeing and for the health of all our people. The Bill seeks to move us away
from a plethora of seemingly unrelated pieces of legislation and policies.
Currently we have, as an example, the Water Act that also looks at managing
waste. The Environment Conservation Act has the same objectives. We also have
various national standards published by various other national bodies such as
the Department of Transport and the Department of Health. The Bill that you
today are cross-examining seeks to address this fragmentation and to realise an
integrated waste management as envisaged by agenda 21.
Reflecting on our province (Gauteng) we are well aware that the province is
the economic engine of the country. We, perhaps, are also conscious of the fact
that this status, unfortunately and needlessly, means that the province
generates large volumes of waste.
It is critical that we should closely associate ourselves with initiatives
that aim at stemming this unnecessary generation of waste. We need to find
environmentally friendly methods of disposing waste when all efforts to reduce,
reuse or recycle this waste have been exhausted.
We need to focus on cleaner production and sustainable consumption to avoid
generation of unnecessary end-of-life products in the first place. It is with
this in mind that we also should welcome the tyre waste regulations, recently
promulgated by Minister Van Schalkwyk.
Friends and colleagues, I invite you all to critically evaluate this Bill to
ensure that, when it is passed by our National Parliament, it will bring us
closer to the realisation of clause 24 of our country's Constitution. We must
ensure that the Act that will be the result of this Bill is able to proactively
and swiftly deal with poor or illegal waste management practices.
In an act that will directly complement the Bill, my Department will be
launching the Gauteng Provincial Litter-Free campaign, during the month of
June. Through this campaign we seek to ensure that we engender a collective
attitudinal change amongst our people with regard to littering.
In conclusion, I again invite you all to constructively interrogate this
important Bill. I also wish to commend the national Department of Environmental
Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) for developing the Bill. We are looking forward to
working with DEAT, other provincial governments and with local municipalities
to ensure that, by the time the Bill is passed in Parliament, it becomes an Act
that meets the needs of all stakeholders. I also wish to send a plea to the
business sector in particular. Some amongst this community treat townships as
veritable dumping grounds for their waste. They need to mend their wayward ways
conscious of the fact that Government is not powerless to firmly deal with this
negativity. I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Environment, Gauteng
Provincial Government
20 March 2007
