Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork

Chapter 3: The politics of wasteappearance of responsible environmental management. Most did not. Governmentmeanwhile used ‘stakeholder participation’ to manage dissent while negotiating noncompliancewith polluting corporations. Outside of managed participation, it wasincreasingly intolerant of dissent, closing down on people’s rights to information andfree speech and contesting the legitimacy of civil society mobilisations. This provokeda confrontation with emerging social movements which had its symbolic climax onthe world stage provided by the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development(WSSD) in Johannesburg. As host, government managed that event to establish theprimacy of economic growth over environment in the conference hall, but it lost thebattle on the streets where its claim to the banner of emancipation was exposed asa threadbare remnant. 34 For their part, the social movements could not sustain themomentum created around the WSSD. The event nevertheless marked a profoundshift in South African politics.Polokwane’s zero waste puzzleFollowing its publication, the NWMS gathered dust for another year. In 2001, theDEAT convened a National Waste Summit which issued the Polokwane Declarationagreed by government, business and civil society stakeholders. It envisaged wastemanagement contributing to sustainable development and “a measurable improvementin the quality of life” and it “reaffirm[ed] our commitment to the Integrated Pollutionand Waste Management Policy, the National Waste Management Strategy and theprinciples of waste minimization, reuse, and recycling for sustainable development”.The need to ‘reaffirm’ was really confirmation that nothing was happening. Nevertheless,Polokwane defined a bold national goal to:Reduce waste generation and disposal by 50% and 25% respectively by 2012and develop a plan for ZERO WASTE by 2022. [Emphasis in original]To achieve this, the declaration laid out a set of actions starting with implementationof the NWMS and the development of legislation. Activists welcomed the zerowaste commitment. Then … nothing happened. Rather than trumpeting a new era,Polokwane was the last hoarse whisper of the spirit of Connepp – the project for socialdemocratic reform.34 See The groundWork Report 2004 for the clamp down on people’s rights and the confrontation at WSSD.- 52 - groundWork - Wasting the Nation