THE PUBLIC SECTOR AND SUSTAINABILITY

By Fiona Wakelin

South Africa’s green economy initiatives are built on the National Development Plan (Vision 2030), the National Strategy for Sustainable Development and Action Plan and the New Growth Path.

The sustainable development vision is intrinsically linked to the green economy which has two interlinked developmental outcomes:

• The growth of economic activity, which leads to investment, jobs and competitiveness

• A shift in the economy as a whole towards cleaner industries and sectors

NINE KEY AREAS IDENTIFIED IN THE GREEN ECONOMY PROGRAMMES The green economy action plan has a number of crosscutting roles and responsibilities and its implementation is significantly decentralised and includes private sector, civil society and all levels of government. The nine key focus areas identified in the green economy programmes include:

In 2019, President Cyril Ramaphosa launched the Good Green Deeds Campaign to mobilise citizens, business, industry, labour and civil society at large towards a common goal – cleaning up South Africa:

“By performing just one Good Green Deed a day, you can make all the difference. Whether it is in recycling your waste, or conducting clean-up activities in your street, in your neighbourhood, school, or municipality, you must be the agent of change we want and need…

“We hope the Good Green Deeds campaign will be embraced with vigour and enthusiasm in all municipalities around South Africa. We are all too aware of the challenges our municipalities face with waste management.

“Our population is growing, and more and more people are moving to the cities, leading to more waste being generated despite diminishing space for landfills…

“Currently the number of South African households with access to waste services is close to 80%, compared to 55% in 2001. The number of households that have refuse removal at least once a week is on the rise, increasing from 56% in 2002 to approximately 66% in 2017. The increase is a step in the right direction; yet we know we can still do more…” - President Ramaphosa

The government’s National Waste Management Strategy has the potential to create 69,000 new jobs and empower SMMEs and cooperatives.

Waste includes a number of detailed action plans that will deliver results by 2023 - these include increasing the total contribution of the waste economy from R24.3- billion to R35.8- billion and creating 127,000 new direct and indirect jobs. The plans also include providing support to 4 300 SMMEs with 70% targeted at youth and at least 30% targeted at women; and ultimately seeing more than 20 million tonnes of waste diverted from landfill.

The dea is responsible for the implementation of the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) and the National Green Fund projects. The EPWP includes 8 programmes focusing on sustainability, job creation and the environment.

However, to ensure systemic sustainability, cooperation between departments, sectors and internationally is key:

The Department of Trade and Industry (dti) is working closely with the Department Environment Affairs (dea) to align the Industrialisation and Environmental policy objectives in order to achieve environmental benefits. Speaking at the Green Economy Investment Dialogue, Chief Director of Green Industries and Energy Efficiency at dti, Mr Gerhard Fourie outlined how this collaboration is bearing green fruit:

“The first sector that we looked at to optimise alignment was the steel and petro chemical sector. We often find that instead of re-investing in new equipment and processes within the sector itself, significant benefits can be achieved by optimising the value chain (for example increasing the recycling of scrap metal). We are also looking at diversifying the local sugar market and working with CSIR’s Energy Centre to identify and model electricity generation and transport fuel solution to support this diversification.”

In January 2020, more than 130 participants from across sectors - public, private and civil society - gathered at the CSIR International Convention Centre in Pretoria at the launch of UNDP South Africa’s Accelerator Lab – one of 60 across the world, serving 78 countries. The labs test and scale new solutions to global challenges by bringing together grassroots ideas with new sources of real-time data and experimentation to meet the fast-changing realities of 21st century development.

UNDP South Africa has partnered with the Department of Science and Innovation (dsi) to implement this innovative global initiative. “Ground-breaking innovation is not new to South Africa. The country has played a pace-setting role in the global innovation ecosystem, which led to the invention of several devices that continue to shape the world innovation landscape till today” - Dr Ayodele Odusola, Resident Representative, UNDP South Africa

In his keynote address, the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Blade Nzimande referred to the strategic partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) which has initiated, under the leadership of the Water Research Council, the Sanitation Transformative Initiative (SaniTI):

“In this new and transformative approach, the circular economy of sanitation sees human waste as a resource, which allows a whole ecosystem of beneficiation to be derived from processing, byproducts and servicing models that support selfsustaining businesses.

“The circular economy has the catalytic effect of stimulating and developing a series and variety of logistics and supply chain models, which brings greater convenience to the user and the muchrequired capacity, which is a weakness in the public model.”

Honourable Nzimande indicated that government is adopting a similar approach with respect to energy access and security (with a focus on off-grid solutions using hydrogen fuel cells and renewable energy sources) and in internet access and connectivity.

“Potentially the biggest industry that can also develop especially looking at the infrastructure demand is the electric car market. Investment in smarter electricity grids will be a pre-requisite for a future electric vehicle roll-out. These smart grids will provide opportunity for private investors in infrastructure but can also address local government revenue challenges. The integration of information and telecommunications technologies and the electricity sector can be lead to a significant new growth in these sectors”.

Launch of UNDP South Africa’s Accelerator Lab Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Blade Nzimande in his speech at the launch of UNDP South Africa’s Accelerator Lab

This statement in South Africa’s National Framework for Sustainable Development reflects government policy towards sustainability:

“South Africa aspires to be a sustainable, economically prosperous and self-reliant nation state that safeguards its democracy by meeting the fundamental human needs of its people, by managing its limited ecological resources responsibly for current and future generations, and by advancing efficient and effective integrated planning and governance through national, regional and global collaboration.”

Sources UNDP South Africa www.dea.gov.za www.dti.gov.za www.dsi.gov.za