ABSTRACT
The story of South Africa’s Working for Water (WfW) programme is a story about a fortuitous, synchronous alignment of the goals and objectives of the new political order, environmental sustainability and the alleviation of poverty. Working for Water is an environmental initiative with significant social benefits, which emerged in postapartheid South Africa. The expectation and general acceptance of change associated with the installation of a democratic government provided a unique window of opportunity for addressing an ecologically and economically critical issue that was aligned with the new government’s Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) and the need for job creation, especially amongst the neglected rural poor. The total cost of invasive plants to South Africa is very high and includes a serious threat to biodiversity, as well as a loss of water through reduced in-stream flow and increased evapotranspiration, with significant economic ramifications. The WfW initiative was developed with the dual purpose of controlling alien invasive plants and providing an ideal opportunity for skills development and job creation. As a result of the support it received and the input from government, the private sector and, at a grassroots level, community and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), it flew, although not without the inevitable wobble.
