The Endumeni Local Municipality on the KwaZulu-Natal midlands for the first time in history received the Arbor City award for the Rural Municipality Category 2016.
This is after the effort that the municipality have put in to ensure that it emerge successful are worthy. The category worth 250 thousand Rands was introduced this year to encourage small, rural municipalities to enter the competition and engage in environmental and greening matters.
Endumeni Municipality Mayor Sboniso Mbatha expressed the importance that trees play in addressing food securities, employment creation and addressing environmental concerns.
According to the Minister Senzeni Zokwana The Arbor City Awards is definitely not only a competition, since through the adjudication process gives an opportunity to share experiences and provide a platform for networking and improving partnerships between National and Local Government and institutions.
“To improve participation in the rural areas, a new Category for Rural local Municipalities has been introduced. It is expected that this will balance participation by both urban and rurally inclined municipalities in the programme,” Minister Senzeni Zokwana.