{"id":9245,"date":"2020-04-02T14:52:21","date_gmt":"2020-04-02T14:52:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/?p=9245"},"modified":"2021-12-01T12:44:24","modified_gmt":"2021-12-01T12:44:24","slug":"greenpeace-africa-disgusted-by-dr-khumalos-comments-on-radio-amid-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/press\/9245\/greenpeace-africa-disgusted-by-dr-khumalos-comments-on-radio-amid-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Greenpeace Africa disgusted by Dr Khumalo&#8217;s comments on radio amid pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>2 April 2020, Johannesburg<\/strong> &#8212; This morning, South Africa&#8217;s National Air Quality Officer (NAQO), Dr Thuli Khumalo, appeared on SAFM to discuss the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries&#8217; last-minute announcement of the doubling of South Africa&#8217;s Sulphur Dioxide (SO2) emissions limits[1]. In response, Bukelwa Nzimande, Climate and Energy Campaigner for Greenpeace Africa, has said:<\/p>\n\n<p>&#8220;Dr Khumalo&#8217;s comments on SAFM this morning are a further indication that government&#8217;s loyalties lie with polluters, not the people of South Africa. To crassly say that, in playing the long-game on curbing air pollution, South Africa will win some and lose some, shows that Dr Khumalo is captured by an exploitative system that places its own interests over people&#8217;s health and lives. Greenpeace Africa expresses its disgust in these comments.<\/p>\n\n<p>&#8220;The only winners here are the polluters, while the people of South Africa are left to choke &#8211; a reality that does not seem to register with those in power despite mountains of evidence that a limit of 1 000mg\/Nm3 is insufficient to protect the health of South Africans.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cSteamrolling the amendment when the SO2 Technical Panel has not finished its work &#8211; and in the midst of a global pandemic when clean air could not be more important &#8211; shows that the Department never took the panel seriously and is not committed to its mandate of protecting South Africans from ruthless polluters,&#8221; ended Nzimande.<br><\/p>\n\n<p>Notes to the editor:<br>[1] Greenpeace Africa&#8217;s response to this news can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/press\/9221\/sa-government-gazettes-approval-for-air-pollution-increases\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Contact details<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n<p>Chris Vlavianos, Greenpeace Africa Communications Officer, 0798837036, <a href=\"mailto:cvlavian@greenpeace.org\">cvlavian@greenpeace.org<\/a>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\t\t\t<section\n\t\t\tclass=\"boxout post-3960 \"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t>\n\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\t\tdata-ga-category=\"Take Action Boxout\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-ga-action=\"Image\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-ga-label=\"n\/a\"\n\t\t\t\tclass=\"cover-card-overlay\"\n\t\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/act\/environmentalinjustice\/\" \n\t\t\t><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img\n\t\t\t\t\t\tsrc=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-africa-stateless\/2018\/10\/e1bb9b80-gp03cd5-1024x682.jpg\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tsrcset=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-africa-stateless\/2018\/10\/e1bb9b80-gp03cd5-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-africa-stateless\/2018\/10\/e1bb9b80-gp03cd5-768x511.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-africa-stateless\/2018\/10\/e1bb9b80-gp03cd5-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-africa-stateless\/2018\/10\/e1bb9b80-gp03cd5-510x340.jpg 510w, https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-africa-stateless\/2018\/10\/e1bb9b80-gp03cd5.jpg 1199w\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tsizes=\"(min-width: 1000px) 358px, (min-width: 780px) 313px, 88px\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\talt=\"International Convention Center Occupation. \u00a9 Shayne Robinson\" title=\"International Convention Center Occupation. \u00a9 Shayne Robinson\"\n\t\t\t\t\/>\n            \t\t\t<div class=\"boxout-content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"boxout-heading medium\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-ga-category=\"Take Action Boxout\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-ga-action=\"Title\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-ga-label=\"n\/a\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/act\/environmentalinjustice\/\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tEnd Climate Change\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t                                    <a\n                        class=\"btn btn-primary\"\n                        data-ga-category=\"Take Action Boxout\"\n                        data-ga-action=\"Call to Action\"\n                        data-ga-label=\"n\/a\"\n                        href=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/act\/environmentalinjustice\/\"\n                        \n                    >\n                        Get Involved\n                    <\/a>\n                \t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/section>\n\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>02 April 2020, Johannesburg &#8212; This morning, South Africa&#8217;s National Air Quality Officer (NAQO), Dr Thuli Khumalo, appeared on SAFM to discuss the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries&#8217; last-minute&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":9246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"not set","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"not set","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[7,26,65],"p4-page-type":[14],"class_list":["post-9245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-protecttheenvironment","tag-coal","tag-energy","tag-southafrica","p4-page-type-press"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9245"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50052,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9245\/revisions\/50052"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9245"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=9245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}