06 Jul 2021

Parliament has learnt that development of waste management plans by local authorities was a statutory requirement as stipulated under Section 9 of the Waste Management Act of 1998. 

Assistant Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Sethabelo Modukanele said, however, local authorities had not been able to develop solid waste management plans as per the provisions of the Act, due to inadequate skills capacity and financial resources. 

Mr Modukanele indicated that waste had grown in terms of quantity and complexity due to population growth and economic advancement, and therefore it required a fully-fledged department to facilitate and coordinate waste management planning at district level. 

He further stated that Waste Management Plan could be used to improve solid waste management. 

He added that the Integrated Waste Management Policy, which would be presented by the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism for Parliament approval, recommended provision of an enabling environment for proper waste management planning that would support waste recovery and value addition to waste. 

Development of local waste management plans, he said, required extensive stakeholder consultations, and therefore would not commit to any timeline because the ministry was yet to engage with the relevant stakeholders on the exercise. 

The minister was answering questions asked by Jwaneng MP, Mr Mephato Reatile, who wanted to know whether the development of solid waste management plans by local authorities was a statutory requirement under the 1998 Waste Management Act. 

He also wanted to establish why local authorities failed to develop plans in the last 22 years and if the ministry did not consider lack of such plans as the main reason why solid waste management was neglected. 

He also wanted to know when all local authorities would have operational solid waste management plans. ENDS