Daisy Ngedle has captured the hearts and collective attention of the nation with her letter to the President.
The eight-year-old from East London has many hopes for the country, and high on her list is a litter-free South Africa.
“Please don’t throw litter on the ground. Please use dustbins because litter affects sea animals,” Daisy said.
The young Clarendon Preparatory School learner made the call when she spoke to SAnews on Thursday ahead of the Good Green Deeds campaign, which will be launched by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday at Sisa Dukashe Stadium in Mdantsane, East London.
Daisy is scheduled to meet the President at the launch, something she can hardly wait for as she aspires to one day become the country’s youngest president.
As fate would have it, her role model has taken note and responded to her letter with a moving letter of his own. But ahead of her meeting with the first citizen, Daisy is excited as can be. She has questions for the President. Lots of them.
“I wrote a letter to the President because he inspires me. He’s calm in Parliament and always has the right answers. I want to ask him how old you need to be a President and how hard it is to rule the world.
“I would like him to make sure that every single child goes to school and has something to eat every day. I would like him to build more schools and hospitals,” Daisy said.
Her request for South Africans to respect the environment are spot on with the spirit of the Good Green Deeds campaign, which is a nationwide programme that challenges all citizens to take a stand against littering and start initiatives to clean up their neighbourhoods.
The Good Green Deeds campaign is aimed at changing people’s attitudes and behaviour towards responsible waste management and shift the paradigm to influence people to be environmentally conscious and make use of the available recycling bins.
One of the objectives of the campaign is to expand productive capacity and enhance service delivery in key green economy sectors, including investment in bio-waste resources, using best practices in food waste composting and urban food production initiatives that result in meaningful employment creation in green economy sectors.
Government has challenged South Africans to continue with the spirit of Thuma Mina and answer the call to stop littering and illegal dumping.
How you can participate
South Africans can participate in the social media challenge for the campaign.
All those on social media should post a picture or video clip of themselves taking some action to clean up the country and use the hashtag #GoodGreenDeeds, and tag @GovernmentZA and @GCISMedia on Twitter. – SAnews.gov.za
