December 9, 2005
By Ndaba Dlamini
WARD 45 is the cleanest in the province. The City of Johannesburg ward has been named best municipal ward in Gauteng in managing waste and maintaining a clean environment, in the provincial Bontle ke Botho competition.
The ward came out tops in the province, taking the award at a ceremony held at the HM Pitje Stadium in Mamelodi, Tshwane on Saturday, 3 December.
For its efforts Ward 45, which consists of Meadowlands West Zone 10, Mofolo North and Zondi, pocketed R125 000.
Ward councillor Tuis Nkutha was ecstatic. "We were awarded the Provincial Winner Wards certificate in the Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, which comes with a R75 000 prize.
"We also managed to grab the Certificate of Sustainability for being the best ward in the province in maintaining the environment, which has prize money of R50 000," he said.
Johannesburg trounced the other metros in the province, coming first in the environmental competition. It was awarded the Bontle ke Botho Best Performing Municipality award, taking home the R200 000 prize money.
Nkutha said Ward 45 had consistently sustained its environment and through various campaigns had encouraged residents to conserve energy and to manage waste. Last year it came third in the competition, winning R25 000.
"Ward 45 has the impressive Dorothy Nyembe Environmental Education Centre, which offers environmental education programmes to the community and schools. The centre is situated within the unique Dorothy Nyembe Park, where flora used for medicinal purposes can be found."
The Zondi Buy Back Centre also impressed the judges, according to Nkutha. The centre, which opened in February, was set up in an attempt to minimise the waste sent to landfills. Jobs are created at the recycling centre for unemployed people in Zondi that involve cleaning and educating people about the environment.
"There are also numerous food gardening projects running in Zondi. I am proud to say these projects are run by women and are a viable source of food and income for the community," Nkutha said.
Plans are under way to plough back the winnings into the community. Some of the money will be used to fence an open space in Zondi to create a farm and, possibly, a shredding machine will be bought for the Buy Back Centre.
"There are so few trees in Soweto and it will be proper to buy and plant trees to green the environment. [We] will also spare a thought for the indigent and come up with ways to help these people."
Nkutha hoped Ward 45's achievement would spur other wards in Johannesburg to begin taking environmental conservation seriously.
"One of the key issues in sustaining the environment is the involvement of the community. We are going to hold more public meetings in the near future to try to educate residents about the importance of the environment," he said.
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