As part of the Gauteng government initiative to clean and green the province, MEC for Agriculture and Rural Development (GDARD) Ms Nandi Mayathula-Khoza, Ekurhuleni metropolitan municipality Mayor Mekgwe and Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane will launch the Gauteng Clean and Green Campaign on 1 September in Tembisa.
With an estimated population of 10,53 million people as at July 2009, (Statistics South Africa, 2009), Gauteng produces an estimated 5,7 million tonnes of waste annually.
Some of Gauteng's waste management challenges that the campaign seeks to address in the next five years include the need to stop people from littering due to lack of ownership or pride with regard to public property, revise outdated municipal bylaws and ensure adequate by-law enforcement, increase the dumping fines and make the fines more deterrent than the current ineffective ones.
Alongside the Gauteng Litter-free campaign, a Green campaign that aims to ensure that fruit and non-fruit trees are planted in some urban and rural parts of the province will be implemented in all metropolitan municipalities of the province until 2014, starting with Ekhurleni metropolitan municipality.
This is MEC for Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development initiatives in working towards making Gauteng litter-free by 2014. This event will be marked by a day long clean up of selected parts of Tembisa.
The campaign seeks to ensure that Gauteng is litter free and job opportunities are created to alleviate poverty. The project also aims to be inclusive and ensure synergy between all Gauteng provincial government’s provincial projects, plans and programmes involved in cleaning and greening Gauteng inclusive of municipalities, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and community based organisations (CBOs), business, industries and the media.
Issued by: Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Gauteng Provincial Government
31 August 2009
Source: Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Gauteng Provincial Government (http://www.gdace.gpg.gov.za/)
