At Interwaste we are committed to living our purpose of serving land and life. We are proud to support causes and individuals who share the same values in not only the human spirit, but in the development of advocacy for the environment.
Miss Earth South Africa has always advocated for the development of young women in South Africa as Environmental Ambassadors. With an unprecedented two years behind us, we face more environmental challenges today than we ever have. And the issue of the climate emergency needs to be tackled head on. Who better to champion this cause, than our very own ambassadors; rooted in their communities and inspired by an organisation that has been established and entrenched in science, community, education, and empowerment.
In September 2022, ; 22-year-old Ziphozethu Sithebe from Centurion was crowned Miss Earth South Africa 2022. With an avid passion for aviation and the green innovation within this space, she has been hard at work over the past few months with her greening projects and campaigns. Sithebe is joined by her runner up: Nthabiseng Kgasi, a marketer and home girl from Protea Glen, this former Miss Soweto, is 27-years-old and is no stranger to the media space. Included in the line-up of announcements made, two ambassadors were announced to complete the Top 4. Knysna beauty, Angelique Fourie is a BA Corporate Comms graduate and is passionate about sustainability and community development and is joined in the top four, by KwaZulu Natal’s Melissa Lederle from Pietermaritzburg and is currently completing her PhD on Climate Change, Refugees and 21st Century Scenarios.
With a passionate commitment and mission to change the perception and understanding of climate change, the impact of environmental degradation and the crucial waste, water and food security paradigm, the Miss Earth South Africa organisation is firmly committed to ensuring that through campaigns such as the #WasteStopsWithME they are able to be on the ground, in cities and communities across the country; from Johannesburg to Tshwane, KwaZulu Natal and Cape Town, Eldorado and Soweto, Alexandria to Gugulethu, to name but a few. Communities were engaged, clean-ups were hosted and communities gathered, to understand and engage the topic at a local level.
Through these programmes, the primary objective is always to create awareness and more importantly to educate on the importance of effective waste management to protect our planet - with a core focus on taking the issue of waste to the individual and connecting ordinary South Africans to their own waste generation and environmental footprint. Additional programmes such as food security, ocean protection, e-waste, conservation and illegal wildlife trade are also focus areas that are addressed each year.
We are very proud to be associated with the Miss Earth brand, and wish Sithebe all the best as she prepares to represent South Africa later this year in the Philippines for the 2022 Miss Earth International title and we have no doubt she will fly the flag high.