The Olive Convention Centre, Durban, Kwazulu-Natal Province, 14 October 2013

Programme Director,
Honourable Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces, Mninwa Mahlangu;
Honourable Deputy Minister of COGTA, Mr Andries Nel;
MEC: KZN: Agriculture and Environmental Affairs, Dr Meshack Radebe;
MEC: Northern Cape: Environment and Nature Conservation: Patrick Mabilo;
Your Worship the Executive Mayor of Ethekwini Metropolitan Municipality, Cllr James Nxumalo;
Members of Mayoral Committees (MMCs)
Councillors;
Representatives of Public Entities;
Distinguished guests;
Officials from national, provincial departments and local government
Waste Management Officers;
Members of the media;

Ladies and Gentlemen

It is a pleasure to be participating at this 4th Waste Management Officers Khoro in KwaZulu-Natal, a beautiful and warm province. We look forward to exciting three days.

The Waste Management Officers Khoro has now become a milestone event to take stock of what we as a country are achieving and what we still need to focus on in order to improve the delivery of waste services to our people.

It is recognised in this year’s theme- “Making the Management of Waste a Collective Effort”; that government cannot address waste management challenges on its own but we need a collective effort.

The government, private sector, civil society and the general public, have a role to play. Working together can do more as a sector to improve the quality of our people’s lives.

In 2012 when we had the 3rd Waste Khoro in East London, we emphasised the need for efficiency in the allocation and use of resources allocated for waste services. We as government turn to focus on the already serviced areas; but the emphasis should also be on the unserviced areas.

_{Deputy Minister Rejoice Mabudafhasi giving the keynote address at the 4th Waste Management Officer’s Khoro.}

As the population gradually grows and society progress, the generation of waste becomes an unavoidable phenomenon. It is further complicated by the complex waste streams which are fuelled by technology advancements and consumerism lifestyles.

It is therefore imperative for the country to introduce innovative approaches in dealing with waste particularly focusing on diverting waste from landfill disposal to other waste management options.

One of the areas which we are looking at is waste to energy in line with the Climate Change Response Policy, 2011. The Department is developing a framework for the Waste Management Flagship Programme with a particular focus on waste to energy.

I am pleased that tomorrow there will be a session where some of the case studies in the country will be explored and hopefully other Municipalities can start to consider the feasibility of implementing these initiatives.

I am particularly mentioning this as one of the efforts for diverting waste from landfill along with other options such as recycling, which I am very passionate about. The Department is also supporting municipalities which still have unlicensed landfill sites.

Following our assessment of unlicensed waste disposal sites in the country, the Department supported the licensing of 56 sites in the 2012/13 financial year.

Further to that; out of the remaining 202 unlicensed sites, the Department will support a total of 122 sites and a further 80 sites will be funded by the Municipal Infrastructure Support Agency (MISA). We are looking at eradicating the backlog of unlicensed sites by end of March 2014.

After all these efforts, it is my humble appeal that municipalities must avoid establishing new sites unless they are appropriately licensed in accordance with the requirements stipulated in the Waste Act.

It is also imperative that the existing sites are managed in an environmentally sound manner to avoid environmental damage and impact on health and well being of our current and future generations.

What is most important in waste services is the planning aspect. The Department is supporting five (5) District Municipalities to develop Integrated Waste Management Plans (IWMPs); which were selected from the 23 vulnerable Districts as identified by Cabinet Legotla in 2011.

The Municipalities are:

• John Taolo District Municipality- Northern Cape;
• Namakwa District Municipality- Northern Cape;
• Sedibeng District Municipality- Gauteng;
• Gert Sibande District Municipality- Mpumalanga and
• Pixley ka Seme District Municipality- Northern Cape.

 These include the Local Municipalities which fall within the jurisdiction of the District Municipalities that do not already have IWMPs. The Department is still looking for funding to support a further five (5) District Municipalities.

Further to this, a web-portal and a guideline have been developed to assist municipalities to develop their own IWMPs in line with the requirements of the National Environmental Management: Waste Act, 2008. Municipalities can review or develop new IWMPs with little or no need for external service providers.

Last year I mentioned that the Department was looking at launching the Youth Jobs in Waste programme aimed at giving young people exposure to waste management by giving them an opportunity to work with municipalities.

This programme was launched in the Free State on 17 June 2013. The capacity gaps in municipalities present a prospect for the creation of job opportunities, on-the-job training, continuous up-skilling, as well as enterprise development for the youth. Through this programme an estimated 3 577 jobs will be created by placing young people in Municipalities, who will be serving as:

• Landfill Site Assistants;
• Waste Collection Administrators; and
• Environmental Awareness Educators.  

Further work opportunities will be created from the construction activities associated with the building or erection of landfill site offices, ablution facilities as well as weigh-pad platforms at landfill sites across the country. Young people in each of South Africa’s nine provinces will benefit from this programme. The provincial distribution of the jobs is as follows:

• KwaZulu-Natal - 728
• Eastern Cape - 566
• Western Cape - 366
• Limpopo - 350
• North West - 326
• Northern Cape - 273
• Mpumalanga - 262
• Free State province, 380 and
•  Gauteng – 326

We urge all of municipalities who will be hosting these young people to welcome them and provide them with the required support, exposure and mentorship they will need. Let us build a new generation of waste managers who will take the waste management sector forward.

We have incorporated the issue of public awareness in these programme, however, the Department is still looking at developing a long-term awareness programme which will support efforts already in existence in various Municipalities, some of which are run by the private sector.

The issue of building capacity for municipalities continues to be a priority for government and in the waste sector, with the limited resources that the Department has, we have continued with the Councillor training sessions on waste management. These sessions were held across all provinces and a total of 643 participants attended the sessions held in the 2012/13 financial year. This training is still offered on request for municipalities which still require it.

The focus is also on training Technical Directors and Municipal Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) on general principles of waste management, to ensure that waste management is prioritised not only by political principals, but by the people who are responsible for allocation and management of funds at local government level. The training sessions are still continuing this year and have to date been held in six (6) provinces, the remaining three (3) provinces will be covered before the end of this financial year.

Our target is that by end of this financial year, all provinces would have been covered. This is a follow-up on the training which was undertaken in 2012/13 where a total of 237 officials were trained nation-wide. We trust that Municipalities will seize these opportunities and ensure that they use the training to improve waste management services in the country.

It is very important to acknowledge our partners who tirelessly work with us in implementing these programmes, in particular Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), SALGA, provincial departments of environment and the municipalities who continuously support us.

The support from the National Treasury is of immense importance and we appreciate that they are always there when we need them. Let us continue to work together in improving the quality of life and turnaround the plight of waste management in this country.

Last week we hosted the International Committee on Contaminated Land (ICCL) where I unfortunately could not attend due to other engagements.

However, I would like to thank MEC Radebe for gracing that meeting and I hear it was a great success. This meeting saw the coming together of international technical experts in the remediation of contaminated land to deliberate on remediation approaches, technology, legislation and how to engage the public in remediation processes.

The provisions on the remediation of contaminated land are new in waste management legislation in South Africa and are included in the Waste Act.

Moving forward, we should strive to implement the National Waste Management Strategy (NWMS) and focus on the priorities set there. The deliberations of this gathering must put emphasis on the NWMS goals and see how we are doing as a country in implementing the Waste Act through the strategy.

I have engaged with the Mayors at the Mayors Dialogue held in Johannesburg in August 2013 and will continue to do so on a regular basis and this is to ensure that waste management is at the top of government’s service delivery agenda.

As this year’s theme is “Making the Management of Waste a Collective Effort” it gives us an opportunity to have robust engagements to come up with practical recommendations for implementation.

Let me take this opportunity to thank you. Let us have fruitful engagements in the panel discussions, breakaway commissions and in the information sessions for the next three days.

I thank you.