The City of Ekurhuleni has been rewarded as the cleanest municipality in Gauteng for 2014.
The metro scooped the top prize at the Bontle ke Botho (BkB) awards ceremony, that was hosted by the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development at the Lakes Hotel in Benoni recently.
The municipality received R300 000 in prize money and will now represent Gauteng province at the Greenest Municipality Competition which is run by the National Department of Environmental Affairs.
Because the metro also won the greenest municipality award last year – a first for Gauteng – Lebogang Maile, Gauteng’s Member of the Executive Committee for Agriculture and Rural Development awarded the City of Ekurhuleni a certificate of recognition for being the first Gauteng municipality to win the national Greenest Municipality Competition.
She also handed over the prizes to the other BkB award winners in the City of Ekurhuleni, where Ward 86 in Duduza received a first prize for new projects in the wards, awarded for wards entering the competition for the first time.
This ward received R50 000 for winning this division of the competition.
The third prize to went to another Duduza ward, Ward 84 that received R40 000.
In the division for sustained projects for schools in the BkB competition the first prize went Ntokozweni Primary School, KwaThema.
The school received R30 000 for its project.
The second prize of R25 000 in the division for new projects for schools went to Mashemong Primary School, Tembisa and third prize went to Kgalema Intermediate School Daveyton, which received R20 000.
The BkB awards are aimed at encouraging sustainable environmental practices in communities.
Another objective of the BkB is to promote environmental actions that take into consideration poverty alleviation and sustainable living practices.
Projects are required to address one or more of five themes which are water conservation, energy efficiency, waste management, sustainable agriculture and greening.
Councillor Vuyewla Mabena, member of the Ekurhuleni Mayoral Committee for Environmental Management says this project had a positive impact in many of the metro’s communities and schools.
“It is important that we come up with innovations that will ensure that it is sustained for the next 20 years,” says Mabena.
