At Wednesday’s COP 17 Round Table at Rhodes, members of the community discussed what climate change means for Grahamstown and looked to develop a unified message about what the upcoming climate conference in Durban should achieve at a local, national, and international level.
At Wednesday’s COP 17 Round Table at Rhodes, members of the community discussed what climate change means for Grahamstown and looked to develop a unified message about what the upcoming climate conference in Durban should achieve at a local, national, and international level.
The event moderators were Dr Ted Avis of Coastal and Environmental Services, Alex Lenferna of South East African Climate Consortium Student Forum, independent resource management consultant Lawrence Sisitka and Nikki Kohly of Rhodes. The event laid the groundwork for future discussions, but also highlighted the roadblocks to creating a united green movement.
To spark discussion, the moderators placed colored Post-Its on the tables, asking attendees to write on the orange notes concerns about climate change; on green, solutions that could be taken. Lenferna and Avis then grouped the notes under headings such as food security, infrastructure, and education, the largest category.
Indeed, a major theme of the discussion was the need for community education. One note read “do all Grahamstown residents even know about / understand climate change beyond just recognising the name?” Many who spoke alluded to Grahamstown’s divided community – and that division was stark on Wednesday evening, with few from Grahamstown East present.
Discussion leader Sisitka advocated a top-down approach – “you find people in every community who are interested,” he said. Bring them all together, and they can communicate the message to their communities in turn. Ntsiki Manyube, who runs a recycling company in Joza, was present, and said she hoped to spread the word about COP 17 in Joza. She liked the idea of replicating parts of the Round Table event across town.
Makana Municipality was represented by Ndumiso Nongwe, the Environmental Manager. Nongwe told that the Muni is pursuing “green city” status for Grahamstown, which entails expanding bike and walking paths and reducing fossil fuel dependency. Nongwe also spoke about the Makana Environmental Forum, which up to now has been an informal gathering of interested community members who submit recommendations to the council. The Forum will soon be made a formal part of the municipal structure. “Many things have come out of that forum,” Nongwe said. “Including me.”
Ward 3 Councilor Marcelle Booysen, also present, responded to a criticism about enforcement of environmental bylaws, saying that three officers are being appointed to police environmental violations. In particular, the speaker had urged enforcement of the bylaw mandating that property owners remove alien plants – “like a traffic cop” giving tickets. Booysen could not confirm whether this specific enforcement effort would be undertaken.
The sharpest words of the evening came from a pair of community members who called for “competent people with the correct attitudes and skills” being put in charge of infrastructure, particularly water. These managers should be chosen for their qualifications, the man added, not for their political connections.
Moderators aimed to have the assembly develop and endorse a list of five “practical and realistic” areas of action – some other suggestions included expanding the Old Gaol Farmer’s Market to include more urban farmers and providing regulatory incentives to support green architecture – but time ran out before this goal could be achieved.
