Volume 10, No.5 - Aguast 2001

Privatisation

Earth

Next year Johannesburg will be hosting the United Nations Global Summit on Sustainable Development. Heads of states from all over the world will be attending. The purpose of the Summit is to assess how countries have implemented Agenda 21, one of the more significant agreements of the Rio Earth Summit in 1992

COSATU will be submitting a document to the summit and this will be published in a future edition of The Shopsteward.
At the same time as the official UN Conference, non-governmental organisations will be hosting the NGO Forum on Sustainable Development. Althea Macquene interviews two people who are involved in the preparations for it.

Roland Langley is a health and safety representative at the Blaauwberg Administration and a member of the South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU), which he represents on the Environmental Justice Networking Forum (EJNF), a network of organisations involved in work on the environment and sustainable development.

Stephen Law works for the Environmental Monitoring Group (EMG), started by a group of academics in the early 1990s and is part of EJNF.

What is the Earth Summit is all about and what is the significance of it being held in Johannesburg?

Roland: It will assess what has been achieved since the Rio Summit and get governments to implement the UN conventions and protocols on the environment and sustainable development. South Africa, on the tip of Africa, has many biodiversity spots that are threatened but not yet destroyed. The conference will raise awareness amongst the general population that we need to care for our environment and biodiversity.

Stephen: The Summit provides us with an opportunity to portray how we as civil society deal with sustainable issues, given our history of the anti-apartheid struggle and the constitution making process. The concept of environmental justice we share in South Africa is a new concept for many countries. Civil society also has the opportunity to engage with government in the process leading up to the summit. The host country will be under scrutiny on issues such as poverty and sustainable development.

What is your understanding of sustainable development and how does it link to the environment?

Roland: Sustainable development means development that does not damage the environment, using resources that are not destroyed but will be there for future generations. Economic development will always be there, but it must not be used to destroy the environment. For example mining and oil refineries create economic development but when the minerals are used up, then there is none. This is development only for profit and not for sustaining our society and environment. The biodiversity of the area is destroyed and this affects the people living there. Biodiversity is the spread of nature in a particular area that supports life including human life. Sustainable development is a new concept for South African workers.

Stephen: Sustainable development is ensuring that there is public participation in decision-making on how we manage our environment, for example air pollution from the cars on the road. This problem can only be addressed effectively if all stakeholders are involved in solving the problem. It is development that is negotiated, and any trade offs made in the process must be acceptable to all stakeholders.

It has been ten years since the Rio Earth Summit - how do you assess the impact of the resolutions and conventions adopted at the Summit, particularly for
a) governments;
b) non governmental organisations and civil society;
c) the United Nations.

Roland: Governments generally have not been implementing the protocols to the full. The richer countries want the poorer countries to implement them, yet these same rich countries are failing to implement the protocols. NGOs have begun to mobilise and work harder to get these issues onto governments' agendas. Without NGOs and a strong civil society, governments and business will just exploit the earth without considering future generations. The UN is just a talk shop with very little teeth. There are too many commissions and meetings, yet the environment is deteriorating.

Stephen: Since Rio there has been a greater awareness of the links between environment and development. Now a sustainable development conference will be looking at poverty for example, not just environmental issues. This same understanding has informed the content of NEMA - our Environmental Management Act.

Agenda 21 - a document that came out of the Earth Summit in Rio as a guide for countries on implementing sustainable development - is said to be a blue print for sustainable development. Do you think it adequately addresses issues which individual developing and developed countries and the world globally are facing, such as globalisation, third world debt, wars and conflict, AIDS?

Roland: The practical implementation of Agenda 21 differs from country to country. Sustainable development in Europe is different from in Africa. Agenda 21 needs to be relooked at in the context of globalisation. It is supposed to highlight the inequalities in our society and suggest ways of addressing them.

Stephen: Agenda 21 is a useful document in galvanising action at a local level. It also has credibility. It is a useful way to package sustainable development but one should not get obsessed with following it to the letter.

When the Rio Conference took place, South Africa was involved in its own issues of negotiations.
a) Were there any South African delegates at the Rio Conference?
b) Has our government signed the Rio conventions?
c) Has our government committed itself to the implementation of Agenda 21?

Roland: The Department of Environment and Tourism has taken the issue of Agenda 21 on board since it is seen as an environment issue. The government met with the South African Local Government Association and they signed a memorandum of understanding to implement Agenda 21 at local government level.

Stephen: South Africa was not officially part of the Rio Conference since we were not part of the UN then, though some NGOs attended unofficially. South Africa has signed the three main conventions but levels of implementation vary.

So are developments in local government such as the privatisation of water and Igoli 2000 in line with Agenda 21?
Roland: No it is not. Nor is GEAR.

Can you outline the preparatory process that will lead up to the Earth Summit - since it is the process that will make the event successful? And what role is there for trade unions like COSATU?

Stephen:
Governments and accredited NGOs can attend the official summit, where all governments will present their ten-year assessment. In the process of developing its assessment, our government will be holding a number of multi-stakeholder consultative meetings in which trade unions and NGOs can participate.

Parallel to the official summit, will be the NGO summit. To assist in preparing for this, NGOs will be having a number of stakeholder meetings in the different provinces to help prepare an independent assessment. Trade unions have a vital role in these.

Various stakeholders will be having independent activities. For example the business sector is planning to have an exhibition. The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions is also planning activities. The NGO Summit will provide a platform for as many of these activities as possible.
There could also be toyi toying outside in the streets or marches such as we saw at Seattle.

Lastly what are you hoping will emerge from the Earth Summit for the world and particularly for Africa and South Africa?

Roland: That the challenges of globalisation can be met by the conference, looking at what they mean, to ensure that there is sustainable development for all. The issues of the South should be taken seriously.

Stephen: For South Africa - a real understanding of what we need to do as a society to ensure we become a sustainable society. We need to look at difficult issues. We also need to get other departments in government such as the Departments of Trade and Industry and Finance to speak about sustainable development and not just the Department of Environment and Tourism.

It is not Africans who generate the greenhouse gases and produce the toxic waste that lead to so many problems! Despite our problems, Africa has many good examples of sustainable living which need to be highlighted.