Garden Route District Municipality, on 30 August 2018, hosted a Garden Route Green Energy Forum at its Disaster Management Centre in George. Representatives from the Garden Route District and George Municipalities, the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers (SAIEE), MTO Forestry and Latts University situated in France, attended the meeting.
The main aim of the discussions was to pursue Green Energy projects that would be in the interest of the residents of the Garden Route. These discussions stemmed from the resolutions taken at the Garden Route Green Energy Summit which took place on 11 and 12 April 2018 under at Fancourt in George. This two-day Summit has unpacked potential areas of alternative energy opportunities, which would see the fruition of an instrumental, collaborative, partnership-driven, green and cleaner environment. Members of the Green Energy Forum who attended the meeting held at the Garden Route District Municipality on 30 August 2018.
At the Green Energy Forum, Mr Johan Dekker from MTO and Mr Pierre Conradie from CMB Engineering made presentations in respect of the Small Scale Embedded Generation Plant, where after SAIEE Southern Cape Centre extended an invitation to the Forum, to visit the MTO Forestry’s 999kVA Steam Turbine Electricity Generation Plant – the biggest Small Scale Embedded Generation Plant in George. The purpose of the site visit was to explore and witness the capacity and operations of the plant for the Forum members to familiarise themselves with relevant information for informed decision making.
The Forum was coordinated by Mr Jason Shaffler from SA-LED in the absence for Mr Gerhard Otto, GRDM Manager, Disaster Management, and is foreseen to be convened on a quarterly basis to discuss progress made towards achieving the resolutions taken at the Green Energy Summit.
21 October 2016 marked another victorious day for Eden District Municipality (Eden DM) and in particular, the Department: Community Services when they won the Western Cape Greenest District Municipality Award, for the fourth consecutive time and on top of that received R130 000.00 prize money. This announcement was made during a prestigious event which was hosted by the Western Cape Department Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, at the Devondale Golf and Wine Estate, in Stellenbosch. The awards were handed over by the Provincial Minister of Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, Mr Anton Bredell.
During the press conference (fltr) : Mr Johan Gie (District Waste Management Officer), Mr Clive Africa (Executive Manager: Community Services), Cllr Memory Booysen (Eden DM Executive Mayor), Mr Godfrey Louw (Municipal Manager) and Mr Johan Compion (Manager: Municipal Health & Environmental Services) with the awards won at the annual Greenest Local Municipality Awards ceremony.
Mr Clive Africa, Executive Manager of Community Services and his team, worked hard to keep the Eden district “green”. Excellence in service delivery has once again been achieved, exactly as the Eden DM vision reads: “Eden, a future empowered through excellence”.
During a press conference held to announce Eden DM’s achievements, Municipal Manager, Mr Godfrey Louw, congratulated all role-players for a job well done. He elaborated that excellence is one of the municipality’s seven (7) values and in cohesion with Eden DM vision; this achievement portrays a true testimony of service delivery outcomes, par excellence.
“Today, I consider myself as one of the most fortunate Mayors in South Africa, who took over a ‘well-run machine’, after the 2016 elections,” said Eden DM Executive Mayor, Cllr Memory Booysen. “A municipality who received a clean-audit in the 2015/16 financial year; a municipality who won the South African Toughest Firefighter Alive Championships and now this past week, received the Western Cape Greenest District Municipality Award, for the fourth consecutive time.” Furthermore, Cllr Booysen extended his congratulations to the other municipalities in the district who also received awards. In conclusion he mentioned that in order to ‘stay up there’, as Executive Mayor he will make sure that management and officials receive the political support in order to promote service delivery.
From the four (4) District Municipalities who participated in the 2016 competition, Eden DM won the Greenest District Municipality Award, which included the following categories:
• Waste Management;
• Water Management & Conservation;
• Climate Change Response;
• Coastal Management; and
• Air Quality Management.
In addition to this, the district also won awards for the “Clean Fires Campaign and the “Innovation Award” for the Enviro Health Application that is currently being used by Eden DM Municipal Health officials.
Hessequa Municipality won the following B-municipal categories and the overall Greenest Local Municipality:
• Climate Change Response
• Biodiversity Management
• Coastal Management
• Leadership and Compliance
In a very humble manner Mr Africa explained: “This award is a beautiful collaboration of love, labour and service. It would not have been achieved without strong team work. Mr Godfrey Louw, the Eden DM Municipal Manager, our Councillors, officials from Supply Chain and Corporate-/Strategic Services, including Administration Staff and Cleaners, all played a vital role in our success. This is proof that our vision of ‘Excellence’ has once more been achieved through focusing our energy towards service delivery to the valuable people of the Eden district”. The profound leadership of Mr Johan Compion must be acknowledged, as well as the dedication, passion and commitment of Dr Johan Schoeman, Mr Morton Hubbe, Mr Johan Gie and Mr Vernon Gibbs-Halls. Eden DM also won the award for innovation for the implementation of a Cell Phone App to improve service delivery and its efforts to inform communities about fire safety with the Eden Clean Fires Campaign.
