The Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality in the Eastern Cape and the Breede River Winelands Local Municipality in the Western Cape have been declared the cleanest municipalities in South Africa by the Department of Environmental Affairs.

The two winners of the Cleanest Town Competition (CTC) received an amount of R1 million rand each to be channelled towards waste management initiatives.

During her key note address at the awards ceremony, Buyelwa Sonjica, Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs said benefits derived from the Cleanest Town Competition include the reinforcement of proper waste management practices, job creation, a cleaner and safer environment to live in and capacity building at municipal level.

The Cleanest Town Competition (CTC) was officially launched in September 2001 by the then Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Valli Moosa. The competition is divided into two categories, namely the metropolitan and local municipality.

CTC is intended to change attitudes by raising awareness and educating communities on good waste management practices as well as to acknowledge ongoing improvements in waste management initiatives undertaken by local and metropolitan municipalities.

The Department of Environmental Affairs recently promulgated the National Environmental Management: Waste Act 59 of 2009 which requires municipalities to play a key role in the effective management of waste.

Waste management is a key municipal service delivery mandate. The New Waste Act requires municipalities to develop and implement Integrated Waste Management Plans (IWMP's) which should be integrated into the municipal Integrated Development Plans (IDP's).

Integrated planning creates the opportunity to influence planning decisions to cater for waste management services. Municipalities are also expected to recognize the need to raise the profile of waste management and bring it on par with the other services like water and electricity.

Speaking at the Local Government Indaba on Environment last month, the Minister said that the department is in the process of developing the Basic Refuse Removal Policy aimed at communities that cannot afford waste removal services. The policy will be taken to cabinet for approval before the end of the year. It will ensure that every community has access to basic refuse services irrespective of where they live.

The runners up of the competition are City of Cape Town and eThekweni under the metropolitan category whilst Tswelopele from Free State and Baphalaborwa in Limpopo are runners up in the local municipality category. The runners up received R750 000 and R500 000 each respectively.

The selection criteria focused on the physical conditions of municipalities and their support systems. The physical conditions aspect of the competition looked at amongst others cleanliness of commercial places, public facilities, leisure and tourist attractions. The support systems criteria looked at waste minimization, awareness programmes as well as enforcement and compliance issues.

Entrants were judged by a panel comprising of representatives from the national environment department, provincial departments and non-governmental organizations.

The Minister also announced the renaming of the Cleanest Town Competition (CTC) to the Greenest Municipalities Competition (GMC). Sonjica said that although the CTC has been fairly successful in achieving its objectives, development within the greening movement requires a broader concept that would embody other elements which are outside the waste management category.