United against climate change

People from all over the world joined hands on Saturday, 3 December, to march against climate change.

Nthabeleng Hadebe(10) and Sisanda Hadebe (10), both from Midlands Meander, an environmental group in Durban, were part of the march that took place from Louis Botha Gardens to the Chief Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre (ICC), ending at the Pavilion Hotel.

“We are attending this march because it shows us the changes of the weather, and it will teach how climate change will affect us.” said Hadebe as the march continued.

Faith based organizations were also part of the march. Shuko Musemangezhi who travelled from Kenya just for this march said, “It is important that we sensitize the youth about climate change because the future is ours. So the youth from Kenya, Zambia, Botswana, USA and Congo grouped up in Kenya and we drove down to South Africa. After the extreme weather conditions we experienced, I realised that people really need to know about climate change.”

Women from Airport Farmers Association in eMthonjeni, Kwa Mashu, Hlokozi and Underberg walked tirelessly to the ICC. Nobuhle Mbothwe, a member of the Association said, “We want to give the youth a voice. Our local municipality isn’t giving us any notice and we want to educate our peers about the importance of decreasing carbon emissions and what it means.”

Despite the march being displayed as a colourful carnival, the message behind it was that strong action needs to be taken against polluters. Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention, Christiana Figueres addressed the crowd at the ICC and said that “good results” should be expected at the end of the COP. The conference will go on up until the end of this week (9 December).

Traffic had to be diverted to Field Street because the whole of Pixley Ka Seme Street was packed with people singing and chanting as they made their way to the ICC.