He said he would continue his campaign against the use of plastic bags, if necessary by passing legislation. Moosa was asked what he would do about the air pollution caused by the Caltex refinery at Milnerton. No cases have yet been brought under the environmental provisions of the Constitution, but Moosa was clearly hinting that his department is looking carefully at these provisions to take legal action against industrial polluters. He said he was often asked whether he was backtracking on his remarks, made shortly after he took office in June, that he would consider banning plastic bags. He reiterated that he remained firmly committed to tackling this issue and his department would soon release a white paper on waste management and hopefully there would be a detailed national waste management strategy in a short space of time.
Plastic bags are a symbol of pollution and waste in our country.
There is no reason why we should be so dependent on plastic bags. The ultimate goal is not to use plastic. I am prepared to introduce legislation on plastic bags, if need be. Moosa said he hoped to declare Walker Bay at Hermanus the country's first whale sanctuary in time for next year's whale season from about July to November and for that critical period boats would be prevented from entering the bay. He said Cape Town was being used as the base operation more and more by boats and researchers going to the Antarctic and this had spin-offs for tourism, although he stressed that he was not talking about taking business to Antarctica because South Africa was at the forefront of combating pollution on the continent's highly sensitive ecosystem.