Five municipalities are cleaner after large clean-up operations, funded by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, were carried out in the first 100 days of new government as part of the Western Cape Clean-up Operation (WECCO).

WECCO involves not only the picking up litter, sweeping of streets, dune stabilisation, greening, environmental education and recycling, but also the temporary and sometimes permanent employment of hundreds of people.

For example, in the five municipalities targeted in the hundred days - Overstrand, Breede Valley, Mossel Bay, Saldanha, and Witzenberg - more than 800 people have been employed and R1 million has been spent cleaning up.

And the clean up of litter alone has been substantial. In the Overstrand region, for example, 54 lorry loads of rubbish were removed from the environment, coming from Kleinmond, with 2830 bags; Gans Bay with 2400 black bags; Hawston, with 2015 bags; Mount Pleasant, with 1435 bags; and from Stanford, with 579 bags, making a total of 9259 black bags.

The five municipalities carrying out clean-ups during the first 100 days are also only five of the 25 municipalities which have signed WECCO agreements with the provincial Department, which has allocated R5,25 million in the current year to these 25 municipalities for various community-based projects, involving waste recycling, clean-up, greening the environment and generally improving the quality of life in our poorer communities.

Provincial Minister of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, Tasneem Essop, and Overstrand Mayor Mr W.J. Smuts visited Zwelihle, Hermanus, on 23 August 2004 to speak to some of the people employed by the Overstrand project and see what impact the clean-up has had.

The table below shows in detail the funding and employment numbers for various municipalities through the WECCO agreements.