For the second consecutive year Emalahleni Local Municipality entered the race for the greenest municipality where it made a mark. At the provincial level we were competing with other local municipalities in the province and were the second runner-up. We were rewarded sum of about R200 000.00 and the certificate.

The award winning municipalities were announced by the Honorable MEC for Environmental Development, Environmental Affairs and Tourism Sakhumzi Somyo and MEC for Corporative Governance and Traditional Affairs Fikile Xasa during the Eastern Cape Greenest Municipality Awards 2016 that were held in East London, Hemingways.

The award seeks to acknowledge municipalities which has done a lot to build capacity, raise awareness and with sustainable best practice on issues of waste and environmental management.

The programme focus on the following areas: Waste management, sustainable energy and conservation, landscaping and beautification, greening and public participation.

Director Community Services Mrs Nokulunga Nyezi said, “We are very thrilled to have managed to get the award for what we are doing, it means we did not regress. In the near future we will get the top award, our systems regarding waste and environmental management are up and running. We recently trained recyclers, are in a process of continuing with the construction of the regional landfill site”.

“We are happy that are our strides are noticeable in ensuring that our municipality is moving towards achieving what is required per the environmental legislation. We are on the right track on issues like management of open spaces as we have taken serious the issue of park development. On recycling we have started as it is one of the key focus areas”, said Mrs Nokulunga Nyezi.

“We were hoping to achieve more although we are not disappointed as we were beaten by municipalities that are far in terms of resources. Our resources at the moment are not equal to what we looking to achieve. The other weakness we have is on the landfill site that is not functional at the moment”, said Nyezi.

“We were not shocked as we were expecting something to come our way, we managed to mantain the position we got last year. There is something we are doing right although there is still room for improvement. The landfill site is one of the areas we are lacking at the moment. Funding is a challenge as there is no committed funding other than our own budget. The staff complement is not talking to what we want to achieve on the environmental issues”, said Municipal Manager Dr Sitembele Vatala

“We were competing against the best. This great achievement is due to the support from the political leadership, collective efforts from the management and the entire workforce”, said Vatala