An additional workforce of 2 000 Mangaung citizens were appointed as part of the Cleaning and Greening and Seperation of Waste at Source (S@S) campaigns.
The campaigns were launched on Friday, 17 November, by the deputy minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Maggie Sotyu, at an event near the southern landfill site in Bloemfontein.
Sotyu said at the event, during which she and other government officials – as well as municipal officials – planted trees, that the programme forms part of 14 other projects across the nine provinces.
“The Cleaning and Greening project is part of the departments’ mass employment, in-house model, which allows it to implement and manage projects using its staff,” Sotyu explained.
She said the mass employment element was aimed at addressing the challenge of unemployment and the alleviation of poverty in communities.
The municipal Cleaning and Greening programme is dedicated to combating environmental degradation and eliminating litter and illegal dumping throughout the nation. The programme’s core focus is to achieve these goals through extensive public employment, emphasising the empowerment of women, youths and individuals with disabilities.
The department has also contributed to the Mangaung Metro eight compaction vehicles, two landfill compactors, two D8-dozers, three front-end loaders, three TLBs, eight bakkies and two tipper trucks amounting to R68 400 000.
As part of the presidential 10 Million Tree programme, a multi-stakeholder initiative which aims to plant a total of ten million trees over a five-year period, five Olea africana trees were planted in front of the entrance to the Motheo Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) College close by.
The deputy minister was joined by the executive mayor of the Mangaung Metro, Gregory Nthatisi, who also kick-started the S@S project, which aims to encourage households to separate waste – fostering a recycling culture.
This will benefit waste pickers, who is envisaged to collect clean and uncontaminated materials, cutting sorting times and reducing health hazards associated with waste sorting.
