It was 10 years today that Nelson Mandela planted a tree in Thokoza Park in Rockville, Soweto, to mark Arbor Month.
In launching this year’s September National Arbor Month, the City of Joburg is set to focus on greening new, low-cost housing developments, new cemeteries, schools and pavements.
The aim is to plant 50 000 trees for the city’s five million residents.
Residents will be especially encouraged to plant fruit trees in their private spaces.
This is set against the danger being posed to city, and national trees, by the infestation of the shothole borer in city and private trees.
These tiny pests bore into the wood, transmitting the fungal pathogen and, in the process, the entire tree may die because of the fungal rot.
If not contained, Joburg could lose about 500000 of its trees in the next few years.
The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has recently formed a working committee to address the problem with other stakeholders to do more research on the pest and how it can be effectively controlled or managed.
The department, in a statement, said this pest was detected in South Africa for the first time last year, in the Pietermaritzburg Botanical Gardens, by the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute of the University of Pretoria.
It was detected again earlier this year in Sandton, Joburg northern suburbs and Ekurhuleni, where entire streets have been infected.
The City of Joburg’s member of the mayoral committee for community development, Nonhlanhla Sifumba, said as part of the September rollout plan, the Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo was appealing to residents and businesses to plant trees to offset their carbon footprint by donating saplings and seeds to the #ArborMonthJoburg campaign.