Xhosa people have a saying, ‘It takes a village’, meaning it takes a village to raise a child, and we need to take the same attitude towards the environment. Just like a child, the environment needs nurturing – and protection.
This was one of the sentiments expressed at SST’s dynamic Learning-and-sharing workshop on Waste-Enterprise Development, held in partnership with the Nelson Mandela University Business School, that took place on the campus on August 6 and 7, 2018. The goal of the gathering was to learn and share information about the recycling industry, to establish and maintain sustainable and profitable recycling businesses in Nelson Mandela Bay, to create a platform for partnerships between big businesses and small, as well as a network to promote enterprise development.
About fifty people attended the workshop, including academics, community leaders and representatives from both big business and SMMEs. Also in attendance was Dr Julius Francis from Wiomsa, principal researcher for CSIR Professor Linda Godfrey and Professor Karl Klingsheim from the Norwegian Embassy, and Thembela Maputaka from the Department of Economic Development and Environment. The Eastern Cape government was also represented by Mandisa Titi from the Premier’s office. The keynote speakers were Dr Francis, Professors Godfrey and Klingsheim. We heard from organisations as varied as Coca-Cola to heads of churches, on subjects from harnessing the power of recycling for uplifting communities through to growing the environmental message through religion.
It was another step toward finding solutions to waste management.
This workshop was supported by the Norwegian government
