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The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the withdrawal of approval by the acting Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, Collins Chabane, of the Integrated Industry Waste Tyre Recycling Plan by the Recycling and Economic Development Initiative of South Africa (Redisa). This is a sensible decision by the acting Minister, as there were procedural irregularities in the approval of this plan.

Last week I wrote to the Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs informing her that the approval of the tyre recycling plan flouted government’s own Waste Tyre Regulations due to the failure to publish the plan in the Government Gazette for a 30-day comment period and for not bringing the plan to the attention of relevant organs of state and interested persons. I asked the Minister to withdraw the plan, and to resume consultation with interested and affected parties. In addition I expressed my dissatisfaction with the plan as it effectively gives Redisa a monopoly over tyre recycling in South Africa and in my opinion, the Redisa plan significantly over estimated the number of jobs that could be created in the tyre recycling sector.

I am glad that the acting Minister agrees that there is a need to attend to procedural requirements in the Waste Tyre regulations, and that relevant parties will be consulted on the plan. The acting Minister must however allow for full consideration of all tyre recycling plans that have been submitted to the government thus far. The Redisa plan is flawed for a number of reasons, and there are better options on the table that are well known to the Department of Environmental Affairs.