Chairperson, Theodore Roosevelt once said:
To waste, to destroy our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed.
To ensure the future of our children's children's children, we need to ensure that we protect and preserve our natural resources.
By 2030 South Africa's transition to an environmentally sustainable, climate change-resilient economy and just society should be well under way, according to the NDP.
The current budget lacks any reflection of this. To ensure the protection and preservation of our environment, we need funds to do more research, we need greater investment in the green economy, and we need to allocate funds to continue with projects such as Working on Fire. I am deeply concerned about budget cuts made, specifically in regard to environmental programmes and chemical waste management.
Regarding environmental programmes, the emergence of small, medium and micro enterprises in areas such as waste management contributes to reducing unemployment, poverty and income inequality.
In committee a great deal of lip service is paid to fostering a green economy, yet the budget was cut by almost R15 million. Why do environmental protection and infrastructure programmes get a budget cut of almost R75 million? What is the likely impact of these reductions, both in the short term and over the long term? How will the reduction in the Green Fund affect projects and help innovate the critical transition to a greener economy?
Opportunities do exist for significant job creation in the recycling sector. Through improved regulations and partnerships between producers and municipalities, small businesses that focus on the collection and recycling of discarded goods such as glass, paper and cardboard can flourish. The current budget fails to take a pragmatic approach to achieving the strategic objectives of improved socioeconomic benefit in the environment sector.
With regard to chemicals and waste management, the NDP states that a revolution in social values is under way and that our culture of conspicuous consumption is being supplanted by social and environmental responsibility. But how, hon Minister, can we give effect to this when this budget fails to create an enabling environment which supports the need to recycle everything from e-waste to industrial waste? The only thing government seems to be recycling is bad politicians!
How can we say municipalities need more help, but then we cut the general waste and municipal support budget by almost R5 million? In a developing world such as ours, where there are so many harmful chemicals we use on a daily basis, why would we cut the budget for chemical waste management by almost R1 million? What justifies these reductions, and how can a budget cut take place when there are so many capacity constraints specifically within local government?
Furthermore, why are the department's seven branches not working together harmoniously? Waste gets dumped at landfill sites. Very little of that waste is recycled and then most of it is set alight, causing massive pollution. How does that make sense? Why has the department introduced regulations on air quality management, only to allow air pollution from burning landfills?
We welcome the results of these measurements. The poor air quality results will no doubt correlate with the poor decisions which inform this budget.
Why don't we just start working together to create jobs? Why don't we incentivise recycling from the local level upwards? It doesn't help if we buy different dustbins and different plastic bags and recycle in our homes, our businesses and even here, but when the municipal waste collection trucks come to our houses or businesses, they just chuck everything in there together, all deurmekaar [mixed-up]! What is that? That is not recycling - definitely not! Government must create a sustainable environment to recycle.
I will leave you with the following ancient American Indian proverb: "We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children." [Applause.]