Effective solutions to SA’s waste management crisis needed: Swarts

Forestry, Fisheries and Environmental Affairs Deputy Minister Bernice Swarts delivers the opening address at the Waste Khoro Conference in Bloemfontein on March 18, 2026.

Forestry, Fisheries and Environmental Affairs Deputy Minister Bernice Swarts has called for effective solutions to the country’s waste management crisis.

Swarts was speaking at a Waste Management Conference in Bloemfontein on Wednesday.

She says they include stronger municipal waste management and a shift in the behaviour of members of the public.

Swarts says, “So it’s for us to find better ways of how we manage waste because it always boils down to how we manage the waste, because we cannot ask ourselves whether the waste is there, it is there and there’s a lot of waste.”

She says, “The other thing that we need to talk about is that all our waste ends up in the landfill sites, so we need to have a frank discussion. What is it that goes to the landfill sites that should not be there? In addition, how do we make sure that it does not get there? How do we educate communities around waste?”