25 Feb 2024

As the 100 days clean-up campaign that Jwaneng Mine and Jwaneng Town Council launched in November draws to a close, the town’s mayor, Ms Olga Ditsie, has appreciated the contributions made by the mine and its business partners towards a clean and beautiful Jwaneng.

Ms Ditsie, who made the commendation during a business meeting recently, however called on businesses to show their commitment to the course since they were part of the Jwaneng community.

Ms Ditsie described the business community as a critical stakeholder in the initiative.

“As part of our engagement efforts, we call upon all the businesses to make a commitment towards this exercise. The plan is to continue with the level of cleanliness beyond the 100 days,” she said.

She said for the initiative to be effective, business owners needed to promote mindset change in their work environments for employees to adopt a culture of cleanliness.

She said individual contributions by members of the business community would go a long way in ensuring that the whole township was clean and that it ultimately regained its position that resonated with its stature as the home of high-value diamonds.

Ms Ditsie expressed concern that most litter cages in business premises were not properly secured, exposing them to wind or stray dogs that scattered the litter around.

“The licensing procedures require that all businesses should have cages for solid waste, but is regrettable that most of them are not secured. Let’s all strive to adopt best litter management practices so that collectively we can improve the appearance of our town as a community,” she said.

She added that even though the council had improved waste collection by outsourcing services in six out of eight wards, there was a challenge of residents who did not pay the P40 monthly waste collection fee.

Jwaneng Mine senior safety and sustainability development manager, Dr Kegomoditswe Maphane, underscored the need to strategise and commit to a clean town beyond the 100 days.
He said turning Jwaneng around would be possible through collective efforts by all residents.
“The campaign was just to build momentum and ignite community participation towards a sustainable environment. It is important for all of us to be ambassadors for the 100 days campaign and actually take part in it. This will ensure sustainability beyond the 100 days,” he said.

The endeavour to align the aesthetic appeal of Jwaneng to the sparkly nature of the diamonds that it produced, followed a similar collaborative effort, the Jwaneng Environmental

Regeneration Strategy, which was launched in 2021, with the objective of deploying effective waste management practices and exploring waste value chains for monetisation towards a cleaner and greener town.

The 100 days campaign, which began on November 24 last year,  was not only intended to ignite the collective responsibility among the Jwaneng community, but was also meant to contribute towards the national vision of a Sustainable Environment by 2036.

The ultimate goal was to transform the aesthetic appeal of the township for the benefit of residents, investors and tourists through community engagement and strategic partnership which could produce sustainable solutions to a clean environment.

The commitment further aspired to reinforce and improve existing waste management processes and systems for effectiveness, while at the same time encouraging communities to transform waste into income-generating enterprises through sustainable means.

Following the launch, community members and other stakeholders hit the ground running, mostly targeting waste in households and open spaces in various spots around the township.

The campaign also encouraged individuals and companies to pledge non-monetary contributions such as sponsoring skips and providing animal control services as well as adopting schools to motivate them towards actively participating in waste control and management. ENDS