She declared that poverty and unemployment can no longer be used as justifications for ecological degradation.
Speaking at the opening of the Global Land Degradation Neutrality Inception Workshop held in Sandton under the auspices of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, Swarts made a passionate plea for a shift in mindset and policy. “We cannot sell our natural resources, whether it's a tree or anything else,” she stated firmly. “Governments must put policies into place which protect the environment. There should be policies which prohibit people from cutting trees.”
Swarts emphasised that land degradation, deforestation, mining, and unsustainable development were destroying ecosystems beyond repair, with consequences that no financial compensation could undo. “No amount of money in the world is going to let us in our countries be bullied,” she said. “We are not going to allow people who think that money is going to buy away the damage that they’ve done.”
Citing the catastrophic 2022 Jagersfontein flooding disaster in SA’s Free State province as a stark example, Swarts underlined the lasting devastation caused by unchecked environmental exploitation. “It has left our communities in a dire state. Restoration and rehabilitation of land is not going to be negotiable,” she insisted.
Swarts criticised multinational corporations for exacerbating land degradation across Africa by exploiting weak governance and using their financial influence to push unsustainable practices. “People like Shell would go into communities seeing that even the countries are poor, so they would come with their money,” she said. “Nature cannot be bought. No, money in the world can buy away floods, can buy away fires, can buy away drought.”
Her message was especially clear to corporate interests seeking to profit at the expense of the environment. “We are not going to be bullied by big companies. It must come to a time where our policies say we need the minerals, but no thank you if it’s going to compromise our communities and kill the land that we will never be able to restore, even in the next 50 years with all the money.”
Highlighting environmental challenges across the continent, Swarts pointed to alarming deforestation in regional countries like Zimbabwe, as well as unsanctioned developments in SA’s urban areas. “People just cut down any tree,” she lamented. “Here in Johannesburg, people will just see a nice bush and trees which are adding into the ecosystem and the next thing you see is construction. We can’t allow that because we need to preserve nature.”
As SA assumes a leadership role in placing desertification, land degradation, and drought at the forefront of its G20 Presidency priorities, Swarts’s address signals a firm stance: that Africa’s future depends on defending its natural resources from exploitation, and that restoration must be a collective, non-negotiable commitment.
--ChannelAfrica--
