Chairperson, I would like to congratulate both the Ministers here today on their reappointment to the Cabinet. Both of you now control important Ministries, but I will concentrate specifically on the environmental challenges facing us as a country.
Minister Sonjica, you once again framed the challenge as having to find a balance between development and environmental protection. I believe that this is the wrong way to frame the debate, as it perpetuates the false perception that the environmental agenda is an antidevelopment agenda. Development is not development if it destroys the natural asset base of the country in the process.
Far from being antidevelopment, the environment in fact provides the very resources for development to take place. It is important, however, that any development utilises these resources at a rate at which they can be renewed, thereby allowing future generations to also benefit from our country's natural riches.
The ID would therefore like to see us adopt a proactive response to environmental issues. We need to map out the country and determine what areas are most appropriate for specific types of development. We must also convene a multistakeholders' forum on mining and the environment so that we can develop a sustainable development framework through which many of these controversial decisions can be evaluated.
The ID would also like to see the implementation of the National Strategy on Sustainable Development driven hard, so that we can proactively transform our economy along sustainable lines. As the author Thomas Friedman states:
In the future, a country's competitiveness in the global economy will be determined by how much they have been able to green their economies.
Unfortunately, we have a long way to go in South Africa, but the opportunities are certainly there to build a low carbon economy, while establishing a new industrial base. [Time expired.]