Chumisa Thengwa

Ms Chumisa Thengwa is a Professional Natural Scientist with a Mastersin Environmental Management and more than 20 years experience in the environmental regulatory, climate change and energy transition fields. Seventeen of those years have been spent in local government where she led thebiodiversity, climate change,restoration ecology and energy transition functions. In this role, Ms Thengwa spearheaded the development of an integrated implementation plan for the Durban Climate Change Strategy, the City’s long term climate change response as well as the implementation of the Energy Transition Policy.

Her undergraduate degree is a Bachelor of Science in Zoology and Statistics with an Honours BSc in Zoology.This provided her with asolid grounding in the scientific field during her early career.

Following her departure from local government, Ms Thengwa is now an Independent Practitioner providing bespoke professional services to select clients on environmental sustainability and governance, inclusive climate action and a just transition towards a low carbon future.

Ms Thengwa has fulfilled speaking roles on global platforms such as the Urban 20 of the G20, the C40 Cities Finance Facility and training with the City Diplomacy Lab at the University of Columbia. Her professional background includes environmental management and assessment; environmental auditing and reporting; biodiversity protection and conservation, natural resource economics, ecological restoration, climate change adaptation and mitigation, energy transition, nature based urban solutions as well as marine protection and research.

Over the past decade, Ms Thengwa has assisted organizations and departments with project packaging for donor funding, conceptualized and implemented large scale donor funded projects including the monitoring and evaluation of such projects.

She has since held administrative and governance positions on various Boards, Tribunals, and Steering Committees including being a member of the Project Steering Committee (PSC) for the Environmental Impact Assessment and Management Strategy(EIAMS), a national government intervention that was tasked with looking at the future state of the Environmental Impact Assessment system in South Africa. The role of the PSC was to give guidance on the strategic direction of the strategy. She was also served as a Board Member for the newly established Environmental Assessment Practitioners Association of South Africa (EAPASA) as a Deputy Chairperson, the only professional registration authority for Environmental Assessment Practitioners in South Africa, a position that she held for 7 years.

In 2015, she was appointed to the eThekwini Municipal Planning Tribunal established in terms of the Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act in South Africa as an Environmental Specialist Advisor to the Tribunal. Ms Thengwa’s career over the years has seen her develop crucial competencies in diverse fields, making her a strong strategic leader and partner in the transition to a low carbon future.

EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP – Total 8 years

October 2021 – January 2024 : eThekwini Municipality: Deputy Head: Biodiversity Management– Acting Deputy Head: Climate Change – 2.5 years

• Provide strategic direction to the Biodiversity Management, Climate Change and Energy functions of the Municipality – total staff compliment of more than 50 including administrative, technical, middle management and senior management.
• Annual budget of R60 million excluding Staff related costs

June 2016 – September 2021: eThekwini Municipality: Acting Deputy Head: Environmental Planning and Climate Protection– 5 years

KEY RESPONSIBILITY AREAS

1. The development, implementation and review of the Durban Metropolitan Open Space System (D’MOSS) Plan and associated finescale Systematic Conservation Plan (SCP);
2. State of Biodiversity reporting
3. The development, implementation and revision of an application review, assessment, compliance monitoring and enforcement system aimed at protecting and managing the biodiversity and natural resource base of the city and ensuring appropriate climate protection;
4. a Municipal Climate Protection Programme (MCPP);
5. the development of appropriate biodiversity and climate protection-focused policies and advocacy, lobbying and communication strategies.
6. the development and implementation of large-scale biodiversity and climate protection projects that address inter alia the needs of job creation, biodiversity protection and management, climate change adaptation and mitigation and the development of a local green economy.
7. Overseeing the development and implementation of an Energy Transition Policy for the city
8. Overseeing the City’s implementation of the Paris Agreement Compliant 1.5 degree Climate Action Plan
9. Overseeing the development and implementation of an Energy Efficiency and Demand Side Management Programme
10. Overseeing the development of the city’s New Buildings Programme and the Incentives Policy

INTERNATIONAL PRESENCEAND KEY ACHIEVEMENTS IN THIS ROLE

Urban 20 Riyadh – Durban Sous-Sherpa and Chair of the NatureBased Urban Solutions Taskforce In 2020 I served in the Urban 20, an engagement group of the G20 that is convened by the C40 Cities Leadership Group and the United Cities and Local Government to elevate the voice of cities to the deliberations of the G20. In my capacity as a Sous-Sherpa for the City of Durban, I chaired the Nature-Based Solutions Task Team, leading a team of 14 cities, 15 knowledge partners and other participating organisations to deliver 6 policy briefs with 17 key recommendations towards the communique to the G20.

The Bremen-Durban Climate Change Partnership

From 2017 I was Durban’s representative of the Climate Change Partnership with the City of Bremen as part of the long standing sister-city diplomatic relationship between the 2 cities. To date, the partnership has successfully conceptualized more than 14 climate change projects, successfully applied for donor funding from the German Service Agency, Engagement Global and together implemented these projects in line with the agreement with the donor. One such project, the Bremen-Durban Marine Environmental Education Network (Ocean Champs Programme), led by myself was part of the submission that won the partnership the German Sustainability Award in 2019.

The C40 Cities Finance Facility– Durban ProjectLead of the CFF funded Transformative Riverine Management Programme

In 2018, Durban was awarded R14 000 000 donor funding from the C40 Cities Finance Facility to develop a business case for scaling up on the nature based efforts that the City of Durban had been implementing to improve adaptive capacity of the 7400km length of rivers. I led this work from inception, chairing the multidisciplinary Business Case Task Team, providing strategic direction and reporting to the key partners.

SENIOR MANAGEMENT – 6 YEARS

May 2010 – May 2016: eThekwini Municipality: Senior Manager: Biodiversity Impact Assessment and Municipal Compliance – 6 years

KEY AREAS OF PERFORMANCE

1. Oversight of the Biodiversity Impact Assessment, Compliance Enforcement and Municipal Environmental Legal Compliance functions of eThekwini Municipality
2. Financial Control
3. Biodiversity Impact Assessment and Decision Making
4. Implementation Of Environmental Legislation

Legal Compliance - manages, mitigates (and where possible) prevents environmental impact caused by municipal activities in order to ensure effective implementation and compliance of municipal projectswith national and provincial environmental legislation.

1. Environmental Management And Planning System - contributes to the preparation and implementation of relevant environmental management and planning systems and policies in order to ensure that the strategicplanning objectives of eThekwini municipality are met.
2. Integrating Biodiversity/Environmental Impact Assessment Principles Into Strategic Plans And Frameworks
3. Project Management
4. Relationship Management
5. Administration

ACHIEVEMENTS

1. Successfully led municipal review of complex EIA’s on high biodiversity habitats for the following projects
   1. King Shaka International Airport Development
   2. Dube Tradeport Support Zone
   3. Clairwood Industrial and Logistics development
   4. Keystone Logistics Platform
   5. Successfully negotiated suitable offsets on all of the above and oversaw implementation thereof

EDUCATION

1995 Lehana Senior Secondary School, Matriculation Exemption 1996 – 1999 University of the Transkei, BSc (Statistics and Zoology) 2000 University of the Transkei,BSc (Honours) (Zoology)

2007 – 2009 Universityof the Free State, Masters in Environmental Management (Resources and Processes, CorporateEnvironmental Management & Sustainability, Water, Pollution & Rehabilitation Management, mini-thesis: “Linking Land Use Practices with Ecological Integrity of the Umngeni River, Durban”)

OTHER COURSES

2001 University of Fort Hare

Webpage design, Java Programming

2003 Olive Organisational Development and Training

Leadership Skills, Participatory Rural Appraisal

2006 University of Potchefstroom.

Environmental Law for Environmental Managers

2012 ETDP-SETA

Conduct Outcomes Based Assessments

2013 PALAMA – University of the Free State

Emerging Management Development Programme.

2013 South African Department of Environmental Affairs

Environmental Management Inspector Basic Training

2014 University of Potchefstroom – CEM

Environmental Law and Co-Operative Government for Local Government Officials