ENVIRONMENTAL activist Sandile Ndawonde comes from Edendale in KwaZulu-Natal. His counterpart, Bobby Peek, hails from Wentworth, a south Durban neighbourhood.

Both men are passionate about the protection of the rights of their communities. They have both established well-networked organisations to help them realise their missions.

Their stories reflect determination to forge a local community-driven movement to empower impoverished people in the country.

Despite the challenges, the two men demonstrate development along a peoplecentred approach.

Ndawonde is director of Green Network, launched in November 1992, as the Greater Edendale Environmental Network.

The organisation supports grassroots initiatives through a communication programme and a flood education project.

On the other hand, Peek launched groundWork in 1999 as a nonprofit environmental justice organisation, dedicated to supporting community-driven campaigns against industrial pollution, toxic landfills, health care waste and oil refineries.

Based in Maritzburg, the organisation has now extended its network beyond SA. It supports similar initiatives in Mozambique and Swaziland, promising a less technocratic future for environmentalism.

Peek and Ndawonde have lobbied together at grassroots level and have gained community support for their initiatives.

The conduct of large companies in their communities which do their business without any concern for the environmental effect of their activities fuelled their passion for green matters. They have never looked back since then.

In Edendale, for instance, Sutherland and Edendale tanneries were accused of poisoning the local environment.

Ndawonde canvassed local groups and lobbied against the tanneries, which were forced to close their operations.

Ndawonde's organisation tackles local issues. All its projects are based in KwaZuluNatal, where they work with "very poor people. People who don't believe that they will ever face a computer screen", he says.

Green Network's grassroots initiative is a black community effort. It has successfully lobbied for the training of local officials to empower them so that they can ensure that housing will no longer be allocated on flood plains.

Peek's groundWork also has local projects. It rallied against privatisation through a Health Care Waste and Incinerator Campaign at Edendale Hospital, where they proved that it would be cheaper for hospitals to make use of an in-house waste disposal system. This has reduced costs from R70 000 to R38 000 a month.

Like Ndawonde, Peek began his efforts as an activist in his own neighbourhood. He insists that community-led protests are the only way to bring government to account.

This is best illustrated by the movement against the Umlazi dump site in south Durban.

Efforts led to Minister Valli Moosa's Multipoint Plan to manage pollution in the area.

GroundWork activists now apply the lessons learnt there to meet challenges in affected communities near Sasolburg and Secunda. Peek asks: "Isn't government's responsibility to all South Africans, not just to those who make a noise?"

His organisation has also developed "Bucket Brigade", an environment protection agency approved project to monitor air pollution around volatile organic compounds.

As a result, companies have begun to monitor air pollution while community representatives make pollution statistics known to government bodies and corporate structures.

Peek's and Ndawonde's organisations are working closely with other nongovernmental organisations to push for community issues at the coming World Summit for Sustainable Development.

Such organisations include Friends of the Earth, GreenPeace, Third World Network, and Corporate Watch.

For this purpose groundWork is organising a Corporate Accountability week (August 19 - 23) to emphasise that impoverished communities continue to be affected by reckless corporate behaviour.

It is also an effort to force the process of working towards a corporate accountability convention.

And as the environment movement has learnt that it needs to develop linkages with its counterparts, Ndawonde will represent Green Network, as a member of groundWork's advisory board.

The organisations remain realistic about the limitations of the summit.

Peek says that environmental justice groups will want to see a "stronger focus on real governance rather than on partnerships", which are voluntary based, but it is unlikely that this will happen.

But both are positive about the future of environmentalism in SA.

GroundWork is developing internship programmes and leadership opportunities for the youth and local activists.

These programmes help to demystify the environment and to enable South Africans to reclaim the concept of sustainability.

Ndawonde says former president Nelson Mandela is his inspiration. There is little doubt that both have inspired youngsters in their communities to absorb environmental struggles as their own.

And although the constant loss of human resources is felt deeply by environmental activists, there is a sense of empowerment from those who remain.

Rather than give up, they feel urged to pursue their objectives despite the odds. Ndawonde says that environmental activism is demanding and stressful. "It makes you stronger but you have to be strong enough to face the work situation."
Aug 16 2002 12:00:00:000AM Sonya Fatah Business Day 1st Edition