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AfriForum gave a presentation to the provincial licensing task teams of the Department of Environmental Affairs in a bid to improve the state of South Africa’s dumping sites.

This follows after the civil rights organisation submitted a report on the state of dumping sites to Edna Molewa, Minister of Environmental Affairs, in September 2016. Since then, AfriForum has had two follow-up meetings with the Department’s garbage management team, during which positive cooperation was established.

“The Department requested AfriForum in 2016 to draft a report on the state of South African dumping sites to start the rehabilitation process. AfriForum will also review the audit questionnaire for 2017 in cooperation with the Department and was invited by the Department to undertake an audit of the Groblersdal dumping site in two weeks’ time,” says Chris Boshoff, AfriForum’s Coordinator for Environmental Affairs.

The Department requested AfriForum to identify eleven priority dumping sites (at least one from each province) and prepare a presentation on these specific dumping sites.

“We will endeavour to build a relationship with the Department that will be to the benefit of our members and the broader public. There are many environmental problems – of which dumping sites are but one – that pollute our environment and are harmful to people’s health,” says Marcus Pawson, AfriForum’s Head of Local Government and Environmental Affairs.

AfriForum encourages branches to be part of municipal forums that cover garbage management and to provide direct input on these matters.

Issued by Afriforum