THE GOVERNMENT is looking for partnerships to create 300,000 new jobs in the green economy, Water and Environmental Affairs Minister, Edna Molewa, has said. The department would use R800 million from the Green Fund over the next two financial years to attract new and additional investments, to stimulate job creation and to lay the foundations for South Africa’s transition to a low carbon, job-creating and resource-efficient growth path.

Molewa said South Africa was also extending its partnerships to international funding institutions such as the World Bank Clean Technology Fund and the newly established Green Climate Fund. The country had entered into the Green Economy Accord, which had been called one of the most comprehensive social pacts on green jobs in the world. Molewa said the implementation of the projects would offer the country the opportunity to close the scarce skills gap in this sector and would soon launch the first phase of countrywide green hubs, with various satellite and regional operations. The project would be launched in Mangaung where more job opportunities would be created as part of the department’s waste management strategy, which has a special focus on job creation.

“We aim to prove that in line with our efforts to reduce, re-use and recycle waste, we could create job opportunities for all our young people,” Molewa concluded.

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