EMM Honours it's Top Environmentalists

Environmental Health Practitioners (EHP) working for the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality gathered on Friday to honour each other and celebrate excellence in their field of expertise at the annual Alfred Nzo Awards Conference held in Kempton Park. Jan Bodenstein from Kempton Park emerged as the as the cream of the crop out of 15 finalists and thus will represent the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality in the provincial stage of the national competition next month. Hot on his heels was Nokuthula Funyufunyu, who works in the Katlehong customer care area, and coming third was Samantha Lange of Kempton Park. Bodenstein, who is the manager for air pollution control in the northern service delivery region, was taken by surprise when announced the overall winner of the achievement award. “To be honest I never saw this coming although I have been working very hard. It came as a huge surprise and a great reward which will motivate me to work even harder,” he said. The awards are named after the late Alfred Nzo, a struggle stalwart and former Minister of Foreign Affairs. Born in Benoni, Nzo in the 50s worked tirelessly as a health inspector to increase awareness on the importance of environmental health in communities. Award winners are individuals that have, through the past year, participated in or initiated a developmental approach in improving environmental health conditions in Ekurhuleni.  This annual ceremony forms part of a National Health initiative to recognize and honour Environmental Health Practitioners in the country.  The provincial award ceremony will take place next month to choose candidates who will represent Gauteng at the national function pencilled down for November.

Last Updated ( Thursday, 21 August 2008 )