Hon Chair, let me start by thanking all the colleagues who participated. This is indeed a great debate. I suppose we all agree and understand that the issues of the environment are of great importance. That's what came across to me in the debate.
Secondly, thank you very much for all the accolades that you showered upon the department. I suppose the same should be said to you and about you. If you were not holding us accountable, I'm sure that we would not be pulling up our socks as we are.
I also thank the director-general and the staff. We will definitely increase the work pace and deliver the best for South Africans, who are so much in need of the services supplied by the job that we do.
All the leaders of the opposition and our leader of the portfolio committee have a lot in common today. Thank you very much for the work that you do, and for all the accolades that you have showered upon us today.
There are issues that I am perhaps not going to be able to touch on; my apologies for doing that if I run out of time, but I'll try to be as quick as possible.
Cutting across what I have heard being raised is the issue of the legislation that has been passed, as well as the process of setting up regulations by the two departments - Environmental Affairs and Mineral Resources. Hon member Morgan and other hon members raised this matter. We are very conscious of those issues and I want to assure you that from our side, Environmental Affairs, we will definitely continue to drive this matter. We have a meeting with the Minister of Mineral Resources pending. The teams at technical level have concluded discussions and we had an appointment in our diaries for last week, but something happened that necessitated our having to shift it a bit. We will report accordingly once this discussion has taken place.
Regarding the issue of the Karoo and fracking, subsequent to our response last week, I had a discussion with the team in the Department of Environmental Affairs. Fortunately there is an expectation in terms of the law, as well as the procedures, that even though I said and still say that as a Minister I can't stand here and say that I definitely won't have to respond to issues of the environment, the EIA appeal, there might in any case be that eventuality, or there may not be. It is, therefore, important and safe for me to stay out of this. Fortunately the officials have been called upon to make their input at that level and that's what we are going to do.
The other matter that I think we need to deal with is the issue of the integration of our work with regard to EIAs, Water Affairs, and all the licensing issues. I did indicate that there is already a system that we have put together regarding managing the waste and the EIA processes, and we are moving towards water integration to create one system. This is because we realise that there are things in common in the expertise that you need in assessing the environmental impact assessment, the impact on water, and all those issues. So, it is necessary to keep comparing notes. The discussion we are holding with Mineral Resources, we are also holding internally, as a department. I want to assure hon members that that process is ongoing.
With regard to the issue of medical waste, hon member Morgan, this is not the first time you have submitted a letter, which is here. We will definitely attend to it. It's a short-term measure, but we do have long- term measures as well, which we intend to use to attend to this matter. We will obviously continue to discuss this and give you feedback on it.
Regarding the issue of biodiversity and SANparks, which I want to link with the issue of the shortage of funds, we are always putting submissions to Treasury requesting more funds, and so on. We are aware of the pressure that comes with the five priorities of government - education, health, etc and the conditions that we are in with regard to job creation in our country. Given that kind of situation, we always ensure that wherever we can, we look at other ways of raising funds. Whilst biodiversity is an important issue and we are looking at the SANparks as conservation areas which need to be restored, we really think that we should continue to debate the "how" part of our conservation in relation to fundraising mechanisms.
We have examples from the past. I always say to Ntate David that in my previous life in Madikwe Lodge we developed the kinds of facilities that bring revenue to government without degrading the environment. That is the reason why we say that development is not a cousin to the environment; neither is the environment a cousin to development. We need to strike a balance. In that situation we don't have to degrade our parks, but we do believe that where there is a shortage of funds we need to continue to look at other ways of doing things in the manner in which we do.
Greening the parks, greening the areas, the green economy and so on are very important issues. Hon Holomisa is a very good example of that. We have approached each other to talk about greening the areas where they work as a society and as a community.
There are various examples mentioned by the hon member Kalyan. Today we are not fighting! She demonstrated how we as individuals should reduce our own individual carbon prints on our own, and that's how we should actually begin. The examples she mentioned need to be debated here in Parliament. We need to look at all those issues.
The hon Deputy Minister raised issues of recycling and all those are very important. We should not just talk about them; we need to ensure that we put them into place.
The green economy, hon member Greyling, is not just about doing things differently; it's about developing. It's not another definition of sustainable development; it's a mechanism to implement sustainable development. People-centred environmental recycling programmes and so on are also going to work. That's why in the Department of Environmental Affairs we have selected those particular areas that help us to address the challenges of environment pressures as areas in which to introduce green economies, as these take people on board and take cognisance of them. Ordinary communities will benefit. That is why we are talking about core practice. [Inaudible.]