Minister- on the 14th of May last year you said the waste sector continues to be a source of job creation.  While this is true, I believe that this sector can be used more optimally, progressively and proactively.  Why are we still throwing waste on landfills and just digging it into the soil?  We are wasting land space that could be used to grow crops or vegetables or even build homes. We can optimise it by putting up inciniration plants and using the waste itself to create energy and jobs!

Why are we still seeing children play on mountains of waste created by this government? As I said last year – Sweden is turning waste into energy by incinerating more than 2.2 mil tons of waste and producing heat for 810 000 households and electricity for 250 000 homes. They are at a point where they don’t have any landfills left!  They are actually importing 800 000 tons of waste each year!  Imagine our country with NO landfils- they’ve done it, why can’t we?

While we talking about getting waste off the landfils and away from our poorest communities- let’s talk about recycling.  Even more importantly, the millions of jobs that are just waiting be created!  Long term jobs, not three month contracts.  Jobs that can make a meaningful diffirence in the lives of our people, the environment and the country as a whole.

Why are we still okay with plastic bags at super markets?  People think it is funy when a plastic shopping bag is revered to as our national flower.  I don’t, and neither should you.  The plastic bag is killing our live stock, our rivers, our environment and our oceans.  Why are we actually paying for something that is so harmful to our environment?  Stop the plastic bags in stores, and create jobs by incentivising handmade shopping bags that are reusable for years!

When it comes to wildlife conservation in SA, there is one hot topic on everyone’s lips- rhinos.  Conserving them, saving them and putting an end to the massacring of one of our precious BIG FIVE!  I believe it all boils down to one question:

Do we want rhinos in 20 years?

If the answer is no, then by all means, carry on.

If it’s YES- then my appeal to you will be to change strategy, drastically! Despite repeated requests to make the stats available more regularly, no new information has been made public by the Minister since January 2015.  According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and African Rhino Specialist Group (AfRSG) 1,338 rhinos were poached on the African continent in 2015, 1,175 of these rhinos were poached in South Africa.  That means 88% of the African rhinos poached in 2015 were slaughtered on South African soil.

And Minister, while I take note of the fact that in 2015 40 less rhinos were poached than in 2014, I must ask: What is it that you are trying to achieve?  When we consider the stats before us we have actually conserved very little.  Well done on the reduction, but this approach will only postpone the extinction date.  Minister, we need the poaching to stop.  Merely reducing the killings is not good enough.  If this government takes conservation seriously, they need to act immediately.  Every rhino that dies unnaturally brings the extinction date closer. Does this government really want to be remembered as the government that just didn’t care?