Date: 04/06/2004
Source: Ministry of Environmental Affairs and Tourism
Title: R Mabudafhasi: World Environment Day
ADDRESS BY HON. REJOICE MABUDAFHASI, MP, DEPUTY MINISTER OF ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS AND TOURISM AT WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY EVENT, Limpopo, 4 June 2003
Programme Director
My colleague MEC
Councillors
Learners and educators
Distinguished guests
Ladies and Gentlemen.
World Environment Day is celebrated internationally on 5 June, the anniversary of the Stockholm Conference of 1972, which was perhaps one of the first major international events to focus attention on the continual degradation of the environment. In South Africa we take things further and celebrate not just a day, but an entire week. The Theme for this year's World Environment Day is "Wanted! Seas and Oceans * Dead or Alive?'" asks us that we make a choice as to how we want to treat the earths seas and oceans. Although this is important to us, and as a fishing and trading nation we are heavily dependent on the sea, the National Theme for World Environment Day is 'A Decade of Sustainability! Our Environment, Our Future". With this theme being much broader we are able to address other environmental issues that may be more pertinent in the geographical area, and particularly in a province such as Limpopo.
Ladies and Gentlemen, as you are all aware, South Africa not that long ago hosted a very successful World Summit on Sustainable Development, and is now responsible for the global implementation of the Johannesburg Plan of Action, which replaces the famous Agenda 21. Equally South Africa is taking the lead in the implementation of the New African Partnership for Development, or NEPAD, as well as playing a leadership role in SADC. And a key feature of these programmes is environmental management.
In a province such as Limpopo, which is mostly rural and very under-developed, many people have the wrong idea of environment. Either they think it is about complicated things, which only concern people in the Northern hemisphere, or else they think it is only about plants and animals. Very few people realise it is about them. It's about all of us.
Think for a minute. What would there be without our environment? No animals, maybe. No flowers. No trees, no plants, no grass, no water, no food no air. No people. It's true.
People have the power to destroy their environment, and they are doing so faster and faster each year. But when they have done so they will discover that what they have really destroyed is themselves.
Each one of us has the power to ensure this does not happen. Each one of us has the responsibility to engage in the foremost struggle of the twenty first century. South Africa is one of the very few countries in the world, which has made the right to a clean and healthy environment a basic constitutional right. Because our new society recognises that without a healthy environment there can be no healthy society. And we all have to defend that right, against pollution, against exploitation, against abuse. Because destruction of the environment is destruction of the future.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the end of the first Decade of Freedom, the first decade in the new South Africa. We have much to be proud about as a country, and it is fitting that the theme for World Environment Day this year should reflect the achievements of this country in its first decade. As I have already mentioned, the National Theme is 'A Decade of Sustainability! Our Environment, Our Future". For this reason we are celebrating in this province at a site which reflects the complex nature of environment and sustainable development. We are not celebrating at a site of natural or ecological importance, unlike previous years. Nor are we celebrating in a community, as we have also done on a number of occasions. Instead we are celebrating at what is really an imaginary spot.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the tropic of Capricorn is a line of latitude at 23
Source: Ministry of Environmental Affairs and Tourism
Title: R Mabudafhasi: World Environment Day
ADDRESS BY HON. REJOICE MABUDAFHASI, MP, DEPUTY MINISTER OF ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS AND TOURISM AT WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY EVENT, Limpopo, 4 June 2003
Programme Director
My colleague MEC
Councillors
Learners and educators
Distinguished guests
Ladies and Gentlemen.
World Environment Day is celebrated internationally on 5 June, the anniversary of the Stockholm Conference of 1972, which was perhaps one of the first major international events to focus attention on the continual degradation of the environment. In South Africa we take things further and celebrate not just a day, but an entire week. The Theme for this year's World Environment Day is "Wanted! Seas and Oceans * Dead or Alive?'" asks us that we make a choice as to how we want to treat the earths seas and oceans. Although this is important to us, and as a fishing and trading nation we are heavily dependent on the sea, the National Theme for World Environment Day is 'A Decade of Sustainability! Our Environment, Our Future". With this theme being much broader we are able to address other environmental issues that may be more pertinent in the geographical area, and particularly in a province such as Limpopo.
Ladies and Gentlemen, as you are all aware, South Africa not that long ago hosted a very successful World Summit on Sustainable Development, and is now responsible for the global implementation of the Johannesburg Plan of Action, which replaces the famous Agenda 21. Equally South Africa is taking the lead in the implementation of the New African Partnership for Development, or NEPAD, as well as playing a leadership role in SADC. And a key feature of these programmes is environmental management.
In a province such as Limpopo, which is mostly rural and very under-developed, many people have the wrong idea of environment. Either they think it is about complicated things, which only concern people in the Northern hemisphere, or else they think it is only about plants and animals. Very few people realise it is about them. It's about all of us.
Think for a minute. What would there be without our environment? No animals, maybe. No flowers. No trees, no plants, no grass, no water, no food no air. No people. It's true.
People have the power to destroy their environment, and they are doing so faster and faster each year. But when they have done so they will discover that what they have really destroyed is themselves.
Each one of us has the power to ensure this does not happen. Each one of us has the responsibility to engage in the foremost struggle of the twenty first century. South Africa is one of the very few countries in the world, which has made the right to a clean and healthy environment a basic constitutional right. Because our new society recognises that without a healthy environment there can be no healthy society. And we all have to defend that right, against pollution, against exploitation, against abuse. Because destruction of the environment is destruction of the future.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the end of the first Decade of Freedom, the first decade in the new South Africa. We have much to be proud about as a country, and it is fitting that the theme for World Environment Day this year should reflect the achievements of this country in its first decade. As I have already mentioned, the National Theme is 'A Decade of Sustainability! Our Environment, Our Future". For this reason we are celebrating in this province at a site which reflects the complex nature of environment and sustainable development. We are not celebrating at a site of natural or ecological importance, unlike previous years. Nor are we celebrating in a community, as we have also done on a number of occasions. Instead we are celebrating at what is really an imaginary spot.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the tropic of Capricorn is a line of latitude at 23
Advertisement
EMAIL THIS ARTICLE SAVE THIS ARTICLE FEEDBACK
To subscribe email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za or click here
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here
