Download Speech by MEC` Lebogang Maile during the EIA Open

ADDRESS BY THE MEC FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT,
ENVIRONMENT,
AGRICULTURE
AND
RURAL
DEVELOPMENT ON THE OCCASION OF THE 2014 MEC
EIA OPEN DAY
26 NOVEMBER 2104
Programme Director
Members of the Executive Council, here present
Members of Mayoral Committees, here present
Representatives of business
Environmental Practitioners and activists
Officials from various spheres of government
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Thank you for joining us this morning for this year’s Environmental
Impact Assessments (EIA) Open Day.
In five days from today, on the 1st to the 12th of December, nations of
the world will converge on Lima, in Peru for the 20th session of the
Conference of the Parties (COP 20) and the 10th session of the
Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the
Kyoto Protocol.
These meetings draw particular significance as they precede COP 21
to be held in Paris in 2015.
During COP 21, global leaders are expected to conclude a deal,
whose seeds were planted at the COP 17 in Durban, on combating
climate change and its effects.
The meetings in Peru also take place at a time when all indications
show that human-induced climate change and environmental
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degradation is already impacting people and ecosystems negatively
through more frequent and intense drought, storms, heat waves, rising
sea levels and warming oceans.
Reports from credible sources also show that much worse is yet to
come if we do not take rapid and decisive action to reverse the effects
of climate change.
We also know too well that failure to act on climate change and
environmental degradation will have devastating effects especially on
developing countries.
It will jeopardise efforts to eliminate poverty; it will deepen food
insecurity and it will threaten the livelihoods of many of the world’s
poor.
Failure to act will also leave future generations with a nearly
insurmountable challenge to survive.
As we look up to Lima to lay the basis for a clear and binding
universal agreement towards a low carbon, climate resilient and
environmentally sustainable future, we must do everything necessary
to preserve the environment that surrounds us, and from which as
humanity we draw our livelihood.
This meeting today is an opportunity for us as stakeholders in the EIA
space to interact with one another as we endeavour to strike the
correct balance between the twin imperatives of accelerated
development and environmental sustainability.
In particular, this is a platform for us to engage, in a meaningful way,
and exchange ideas with a view to improving efficiencies in the
administration of EIAs.
Programme Director, we have decided to keep deliberations at this
gathering as interactive as possible.
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We will therefore use this occasion not only to share our vision on
how to re-engineer the EIA process but also to receive feed-back from
you, our stakeholders, on how best we can make further
improvements in the processing of EIAs.
We expect you to give us honest feed-back and to engage us robustly.
On this Day we will share with you our EIA performance report,
indicating the efficiency gains we have made over the past few years
in the processing of EIAs.
While we note the progress we are making in processing EIAs within
the legally stipulated period, we are still not satisfied.
We believe that our stakeholders deserve much better!
In this regard, we have lifted the target of EIA applications finalised
within the prescribed legal timeframe from 80% to 91%.
This target is not negotiable! We demand that no less than 91% of
EIA’s submitted in Gauteng should be processed within the legislated
timeframe.
However we are not stopping here. We are continuing to push the
boundaries and are determined to reduce further the turn-around
times.
We will, therefore, today be announcing measures to further improve
efficiencies and most importantly reduce the time it takes to process
EIAs in our province.
In particular we will share with you the Gauteng Environmental
Management Framework, in terms of which the competent authority
may identify areas where environmental authorisation will be required
for certain additional listed activities or where the undertaking of
certain activities may be excluded from requiring an environmental
authorisation.
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We will also share with you our EIA Review System. This is an
electronic EIA application and review system that we will use to reengineer our business processes in order to fast-track decision making
in the finalisation of EIAs.
Through this system will also reduce substantially the amount of
paper work involved in the processing of EIAs.
In addition today we will introduce to you the amended EIA
Regulations for 2014. These new regulations, expected to take effect
on the 8th of December, demonstrate our determination as government
to streamline approval processes in our country and in our Province.
Programme Director, we are doing all of these things to give practical
meaning to our on-going commitment to building Gauteng as a smart
City Region.
By re-engineering the EIA processes we are contributing to the goal
of reducing the cost and ensuring ease of doing business, for
enhanced trade and investment in our Province.
This is particularly important because according to the World Bank
Index on ease of doing business, South Africa outranks its BRICS
partners on a number of factors contributing to the cost of doing
business.
However, one important consideration for the cost of doing business
that is often left out, is the development cost. This includes permit
approval costs, which also covers the processing of EIAs.
The issue of development cost as a major contributor towards the cost
of doing business, was underscored by the His Excellency President
Jacob Zuma who said in the State of the Nation Address this year:
“I (have) started engaging business on specific steps that government
can take to make it easier to do business in our country. Arising out of
that process, we have now streamlined regulatory and licensing
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approvals for environmental impact assessments, water licenses and
mining licenses”
From this it is clear that by re-engineering our EIA processes we are
responding not only to our own priorities in Gauteng but also to
national priorities.
Equally, the measures we are introducing in the EIA space will help
us advance the pursuit of our own ten-pillar programme of
transformation, modernisation and reindustrialization of Gauteng.
This programme seeks to give effect to the goals of the National
Development Plan, Vision 2030; our country’s development blue
print, which aims to eliminate poverty and to significantly reduce
inequality and unemployment by 2030.
Central to the implementation of our ten pillar programme is the
identification of game changers through which we will place Gauteng
on a qualitatively different development trajectory.
The game changers we have identified involve doing things better,
more efficiently and on a larger scale.
We have no doubt that our initiatives to re-engineer EIAs will go a
long way in ensuring that we deliver on our game changers.
By re-engineering our EIA processes we are also contributing directly
to the modernization pillar of our ten pillar programme.
A critical part of this pillar is the increased deployment of research,
innovation and technology to support in particular the modernization
of our public service and our economy.
Through the measures we are announcing today we are contributing
towards modernizing the provision of services by building a smart
public service infrastructure, capable of delivering to our people in a
sustained, effective and efficient manner.
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We are also supporting ongoing efforts to reverse de-industrialization
and its effects on the Gauteng economy.
Indeed our interventions are making it possible to fast track the reindustrialisation of Gauteng, while at the same time ensuring
environmental sustainability.
As part of reindustrialising Gauteng, over the next five to fifteen
years, we have committed ourselves, among others, to renewing and
building infrastructure, including providing modern infrastructure in
townships, as the backbone of the provincial economy.
In this regard, we have continued to make the point that in the coming
years Gauteng will become a massive construction site.
Infrastructure development is also one of our provincial game
changers; through which we will roll back the triple challenges of
unemployment, poverty and underdevelopment.
Our interventions in the EIA space also form part of our on-going
efforts to create a conducive environment for increased private and
public sector investment in the provincial economy.
They signal our commitment to continuously roll out the red carpet to
investors.
They are our way of showing that Gauteng is indeed open for
business!
Programme Director as we in Gauteng prepare to take the lead in
Africa’s industrialisation, it is critical that we strengthen our position
as the Gateway to the African Continent.
In this regard we must continue to pay attention to positioning
Gauteng an attractive destination for local and foreign investment,
including investment by companies that seek to spread their wings
into other parts of our Continent.
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By re-engineering our EIA processes; thus reducing the costs and
enhancing the ease of doing business, we are contributing directly
toward this goal. We are making Gauteng a destination of choice for
investors, including those eying opportunities elsewhere on our
continent.
In addition our interventions are contributing towards our strategic
goal of building post-apartheid cities that are smart, compact, green
and environmentally sustainable.
They are moving us further away from the economically and
environmentally unsustainable apartheid spatial planning patterns.
They are contributing in making our cities better places to invest,
work, live and play.
In the coming months we will strengthen the coordination of EIA
processes among all spheres of government. We will also strengthen
coordination with business, civil society and environmental
communities.
In line with this commitment, we will set up an Inter-Governmental
Relations Technical Working Group Forum with other government
stakeholders, especially with municipalities under the auspices of the
Gauteng Growth and Development Agency.
We will use this Forum to ensure that development plans over a 5 to
15 year horizon are discussed and that development approvals,
including EIAs and land-use approvals are streamlined.
In order to support efforts aimed at facilitating increased domestic and
foreign direct investment, we have already set up an EIA Office at the
Gauteng Investment Centre (GIC).
Linked to this is the commitment, we have made to reduce the
timeframes for developments submitted through GIC by 50%. This is
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in addition to other development facilitation services the GIC
provides.
Further, there is a need for a discussion platform for Environmental
Practitioners with the Department at a policy level; a level higher than
EIA application level.
This platform must be set up before April 2015 and provide quarterly
reports to the Executive Authority on issues identified as blockages to
the improved efficiencies we seek to achieve.
I take this opportunity to urge all of you to join hands with us as we
chart a new path towards a transformed, modernised and reindustrialised Gauteng City Region, characterised by efficiencies in
regulatory processes and approvals.
In particular I urge you to work with us towards ensuring that the
Department meets and exceeds the EIA timeframes.
Our ultimate goal must be to do away with the perception, whether
real or perceived, that inefficiencies in regulatory approval processes
are a stumbling block to accelerated development in our province.
Let the conversation begin!
Thank you.
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