By Gabi Khumalo
Kempton Park – Building the much-needed capacity in the waste sector in townships, peri-urban and rural areas will go a long way towards addressing historical imbalances, says Deputy Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, Rejoice Mabudafhasi.
Speaking during a mayors’ dialogue on waste management, water conservation and women and youth development on Tuesday in Kempton Park, Mabudafhasi said it was important for the state to increase its capacity to deliver waste services to improve the quality of life and dignity of its people.
“As leaders in local government, you are no strangers to the fact that waste management is at the core of service delivery. The department has conducted numerous studies that have clearly illustrated the capacity constraints that are experienced by you in the municipalities, in delivering waste services.
“Municipalities face major challenges with regard to capacity, including but not limited to, landfill operations, waste collection planning and administration, separation at source and refuse collection,” she said.
The dialogue was convened by Mabudafhasi after she pledged during the department’s budget vote earlier this year that they would meet in this forum to encourage all mayors to prioritize and champion water conservation, the environment, women and youth projects.
The mayoral dialogue – a first of its kind in South Africa – sought to protect the environment and conserve water for socio-economic development, women and youth empowerment.
It sought to ensure an integrated approach with programmes and key stakeholders, and identify innovations to address challenges and gaps at local government level.
Creating jobs in waste management
Mabudafhasi noted that the capacity gaps in municipalities presented an opening for the creation of job opportunities, on-the-job training, continuous up-skilling as well as enterprise development for the youth.
She said the waste sector had been identified as one of the critical sectors with the potential to contribute substantially to the generation of jobs within the green economy.
In light of this, she said the department was increasingly expanding its job creation and enterprise development programme with the sector.
Through the Youth Jobs in Waste programme, an estimated 3 577 jobs will be created by placing young people in municipalities, who will serve as landfill site assistants, waste collection administrations and environmental awareness education.
Mabudafhasi urged mayors to host young people in their municipalities and provide them with the required support, exposure and mentorship they need.
Deputy Director-General: Chemicals and Waste Management in the Department of Environmental Affairs, Mark Gordon, said that climate change, energy security, as well as economic growth and development were global challenges, which local governments could do something about.
Gordon said institutional management, governance, integrated planning and development, ineffective funding, budgetary constraints as well as regulatory and legislative issues were among the key issues and challenges in ensuring effective waste management.
Balanganani Nengovhela, from the South African Local Government Association, said there had been a shift over the past five to 10 years in how solid waste was managed, and more emphasis was now placed on waste minimisation and reduction at source.
He said that South Africa’s approach to waste management was in accordance with the waste hierarchy introduced by the White Paper on Integrated Pollution and Waste Management of 2000.
The sustainability of the delivery of solid waste services in local government, which is constrained by severe fiscal challenges, was a challenge, Nengovhela said.
“The structure of capital financing for waste services is not optimal, with reliance on grant financing, subsidy leakage to non-poor consumers, and user charge revenues that are too low.
“The municipal solid waste sector is in general facing a serious fiscal situation, with operating deficits ballooning to the point where the sustainability of service delivery will be threatened,” Nengovhela said.
The mayors raised concerns that the waste sector was always affected during service delivery protests, calling for the implementation of a clause to indicate how to deal with the problem. – SAnews.gov.za
