"Dear Editor
If, instead of announcing his Cabinet on Wednesday, President Mbheki
had announced that the responsibilities of the environmental ministry
were the least important of all issues facing our country, I would
have thought he was joking. After all, it is the poorest who bear
the brunt of environmental degradation. They suffer the most from
industrial and agricultural pollution. The effects of climate change,
floods and droughts on food production and food prices first hurt
the poor. Declining fish stocks and inappropriate policies turn
artisanal fishers into poachers and poorly paid workers at fish
factories. Indigenous knowledge held by rural communities about
the medicinal use of plant species is increasingly exploited by
drug companies with little or no compensation. I could go on.
So why is it that the environmental portfolio is always given such
low status?
With all due respect to new Minister van Schalkwyk, there is no
disguising the fact that he was given the portfolio as the a "gift"
for delivering NNP voters in the Western Cape to the ANC. He is
an experienced politician and may well turn out to be a brilliant
Minister, but that is not the point. The fact is that our President
and his advisors saw the environmental portfolio as unimportant
enough to be "traded away" for party political ends. It's
hard to believe that of the 400-odd elected MPs to choose from,
not one has the vision, skill and will to lead the environmental
ministry.
The President has thrown Mr van Schalkwyk a bone. We can only wish
him well and hope that he uses all the political leverage he can
muster to build on the work of the outgoing minister. We can only
hope that by the next election, our President has understood the
message implicit in our Constitution, in the
Declaration of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, in
the Millenium Development Goals, in the Desertification Convention,
and in countless other agreements we are party to - that it is the
poor who are most vulnerable to environmental degradation - that
the link between environmental degradation, the extreme poverty
of many and the excessive wealth of few is clear - and that the
only real solutions to environmental problems are political ones.
Yours sincerely
etc.etc."
