BY MBONO MDLULI
EZULWINI – From the 1st of December this year, Eswatini will totally ban the use of plastics within the country.
This means that anyone in the country will soon see no plastic lying around within the country. Even in shops, there might be no option to pay any amount of money to get a plastic bag. Prime Minister Russell Mmiso Dlamini said very soon, Government would be operationalising the law that bans plastics in the country.
He was saying this today (May 22, 2024) at Sibane Sami Hotel in Ezulwini, where he was meeting the Members of Parliament (MPs) House of Assembly Portfolio Committee on the Office of the Prime Minister. The purpose of this meeting was to update the committee on the work that was done by the Office of the Prime Minister.
The prime minister spoke of the ban of plastic as an example of how corruption could be a hindrance towards the total ban of plastic use in the country. He urged the members of the committee to ensure that they refused to accept money that would be given to them for the purposes of corruption, and on top of that, the members of the committee should expose the people trying to bribe them.
“For example, we expect that very soon, we stop using plastics and we will be banning plastics. The law allowing that to happen was enacted a long time ago. What we have to do is to start operating. However, we have a challenge regarding people who have money, who might want to bribe you to ensure that such does not happen,” Dlamini said.
The premier said it would be unfoirtunate for the members of the committee to accept the bribes just because they wanted to personally benefit at the expense of the nation. The prime minister stated that plastics could be dangerous and many people in the country could have their lives in danger because of their continued use. Dlamini said it was known that plastics were dangerous to animals, which risked dying because of having eaten them.
He further told the MPs that it was found that some plastics caused cancer, which was one of the diseases that were on the rise in the country. Dlamini stated that it was important for the legislators to look at the bigger picture when dealing with such sensitive matters, considering the interests of the country, in the process.
“For instance, we know that styrofoams and single use plastic bags are carcinogenic but some companies would rather continue to produce and use them and let Emaswati die instead of using the alternatives that are there. There is no lobbying that should change your minds on this. You only need to look at the statistics and see how the rate of cancer has increased in this country, among other Non-Communicable Diseases, to see how serious this is,” the prime minister said.
The production and use of plastics are regulated under the Control of Plastic Bags Regulations of 2021. The Regulations aim to operationalise Section 89 of the Environmental Management Act of 2002. The Regulations are housed within the Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Affairs, which is responsible for protecting the environment, among other responsibilities.
There are three objectives of the Regulations (see Regulation 3 of the Control of Plastic Bags Regulations, 2021). They include regulating the production, importation, and the use of plastic bags. The second objective is to promote the re-use, recycling and safe handling of plastic bags. The last objective is to ultimately ban the production, importation and use of plastic bags with a wall thickness of less than 24 micrometres in Eswatini.
