Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork

Chapter 3: The politics of wastevery few municipalities have any capacity to speak of – even if local officials are nowdesignated as inspectors. Thus, cement kilns may have tried to clean up their act inpreparation for a scorpion ‘blitz’ [see Chapter 4] but there are no guarantees that theywill keep it clean when the scorpions move on. Despite being given notice, most ofthe industries inspected are not in fact “compliant with environmental legislation andpermits”, according to DEAT official Peter Lukey. 52Five years after promising new air quality legislation, the DEAT finally got theNational Environmental Management: Air Quality Act (AQA) through parliamentin 2005. The Act was broadly welcomed by civil society. However, after parliamentaryhearings on the Bill were closed, the DEAT inserted a new clause which MPs thoughtwas innocuous. The clause allows the minister to identify and regulate ‘controlledfuels’, defined as “a substance or mixture of substances which, when used as a fuelin a combustion process, result in atmospheric emissions …” [s. 26]. Far from beinginnocuous, it permits incineration by making provision to regulate it. The DEATknew that environmental organisations would oppose it but its late insertion ensuredthat they did not see it until too late. “We were scammed,” said groundWork directorBobby Peek.The Waste Bill: law of deferralThe Waste Bill started going through the parliamentary process in 2007. The sevenyear delay was more about weak leadership in the DEAT than the low priority givento waste according to some observers. Certainly, with new leadership who regardedthe delay as an embarrassment, the department began to drive the process with somevigour. Nevertheless, it is difficult to imagine government allowing the Departmentof Finance to sink into bureaucratic lethargy. As Ben Fine argues [2008], governmenthas in fact built the capacity for what it regards as important. Several such prioritiesadd substantially to the waste stream, including: the industrial development zones(IDZs) and associated mega-projects; the auto industry development programme;the information technology programme; the pebble bed modular reactor (PBMR)– government’s largest, most secretive and least certain industrial developmentprogramme; the 2010 soccer stadiums; and the infrastructure development programme.Most of these initiatives are driven by senior departments or departments that haverisen rapidly in stature: Public Enterprises, Minerals and Energy, Trade and Industry,52 Jacqueline Holman, Deat expands strategic industrial projects, Engineering News, October 31 – November 6,2008.- 70 - groundWork - Wasting the Nation