The winners of the 6^th Greenest Municipality Competition (GMC) were announced recently with the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality and the Polokwane Local Municipality taking top honours as the greenest municipalities in South Africa, winning the overall prizes in the Metro and Local categories, respectively.

The winners will receive R3.5 million each which will go toward funding infrastructure projects aimed at protecting the environment such as the implementation of waste, climate change and green economy related job creation projects.

Speaking at the GMC awards, Deputy Minister of Environmental Affairs, Barbara Thomson acknowledged the role played by South African Municipalities in embracing the concept of green economy, through the implementation of long term sustainability policies and strategies in partnership with local communities.

“This is an important development for our country because it demonstrates an increasing awareness and realisation that our prosperity as a country is inextricably connected to the well-being of our environment,” she said.

Enabling the transition to greener municipalities

Other winners from the competition include the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality and the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality who respectively won the first and second runner-up in the metro category while the Govan Mbeki Municipality and the Hessequa Local Municipality won the local municipality category.  The first runner up will receive R3 million and the second runner up will receive 2.5 million each.

The minister said since its inception the Greenest Municipality Competition was an important enabler of the transition towards greener municipalities.

“More than that, the competition has evolved into a significant contributor towards our collective response to the challenges posed by climate change and our path towards a sustainable future. Through the competition we have also strengthened cooperation and coordination across the three spheres of government,” the minister added.