The announcement was recently made by the National Department of Environmental Affairs during the fifth Greenest Municipality Competition (GMC) held at the Steve Tshwete Local Municipality in Mpumalanga.
In 2013, the metro was crowned the greenest city in this competition.
Metro spokesman Themba Gadebe said Ekurhuleni took position two in the competition after eThekwini Municipality, walking away with R3 million and a certificate of recognition.
Gadebe said the prize money will be used for projects that promote environment-related projects and green economy initiatives.
The metro is known to be among the leaders advocating for clean and green programmes such as the Mayoral Clean City programme and the night shift Central Business District (CBD) cleaning programmes.
“Taking position two in the competition simply means we have set the tone during the first round and many have learnt from us. We will accelerate our efforts to claim our number one spot in the competition,” said Ekurhuleni’s Member of the Mayoral committee (MMC) for Environmental Development, Clr Ndosi Shongwe.
Clr Shongwe attributed the accolade to the dedicated efforts of various departments including Waste Management Services, Health and Social Services, Environmental Resource Management, Water and Energy departments.
The Environmental Affairs’ criteria for assessment included the following:
• Good waste management, energy efficiency conservation
• Water management, landscaping, tree planting and beautification, public participation and community empowerment and schools
• Leadership and institutional arrangements and presentation.
Over a hundred metropolitan and local municipalities have competed for the awards and the following emerged victorious
Overall winner: eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality – R3.5m
First runner-up: Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality – R3m
Second runner-up: Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality – R 2.5m
