Department launches new waste management project

The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport together with the Hibiscus Coast Municipality launched a waste management Project called Siyazenzela, at the Ugu Agricultural Market in Port Shepstone recently.

The Siyazenzela project is under the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) which the Provincial Government asked the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport to manage. The main aim of the project is to seek the participation of Provincial and National Government structures in facilitating labour intensive methods in responding to the challenge of service delivery, poverty-alleviation and job-creation in the country.

The project is a variation of ‘The Garbage that is not garbage and Green Exchange programme’, which originated in Curitiba, Brazil. In September 2006, the MEC for Transport, Community Safety and Liaison, Mr. Bheki Cele went on a study tour to Brazil to learn more about their transportation and waste management systems.

Cele’s South African delegation compiled a proposal which forwarded the idea of piloting such a project in the eThekweni, Hibiscus Coast, and Msunduzi Municipalities. Siyazenzela is improving and extending waste removal services in rural areas. The benefits of the Siyazenzela project are to sustain community gardens, the prevention of health risks and environmental pollution and removing the dependency syndrome.

Speaking during the launch, Public Works MEC Lydia Johnson said: “We are on a mission to make the lives of the people much better as the government promised in 1994.”

MEC Cele encouraged Port Shepstone communities “to do things for themselves” as the project title indicates. He added: “This commitment is in pursuit of the 2014 objectives of halving unemployment and poverty.” Cele explained: “EPWP is a nation-wide government-led initiative aimed at drawing a significant number of unemployed South Africans into productive work, in a manner that will enable them to gain skills and increase their capacity to earn an income.”

Siyazenzela beneficiaries consist of about two hundred workers and eight supervisors from selected areas within the Hibiscus Coast, including areas like Louisiana, Bhobhoyi, Masenenge and Mkholombe. The beneficiaries work in pairs, collecting garbage from their designated routes. They are employed on a yearly basis with an option of renewing their contract at year end.

The beneficiaries’ responsibility will also include sorting the garbage into organic and non-organic parcels. Every two weeks, waste removal services will go to collection points where the exchange will occur. They will receive food packages as remuneration for their services.

KwaZulu Natal Premier Dr. Sibusiso Ndebele said the food parcels have essential foods like rice, flour, maize, samp, beans, sugar, salt, tea, green soap and vegetables. The Premier reiterated his government’s commitment to impact positively on the lives of the poor who comprise the majority of the people in this province.

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