Deputy Minister Bernice Swarts leads nationwide campaign to plant ten million trees on Heritage Day, 24 Sept

The Deputy Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Ms Bernice Swarts, will lead a nationwide campaign to plant ten million trees on Heritage Day, 24 September 2026.

The campaign forms part of President Cyril Ramaphosa's Presidential One Billion Trees Programme, which seeks to mobilise South Africans from all walks of life-including government, business, the private sector, interfaith organisations, the diplomatic corps, traditional leaders, non-governmental organisations, youth formations and communities-to plant trees and contribute to efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change.

The main tree-planting events will take place in Pretoria (Freedom Park), Johannesburg (Noordgesig, Soweto) and Western Cape (George).

The Pretoria tree-planting event will be led by Deputy Minister Bernice Swarts at the Freedom Park Heritage Site in Salvokop. Following this event, Deputy Minister Swarts will join the Gauteng MEC for Environment, Mr Ewan Botha, at Noordgesig in Soweto, Johannesburg.

The George tree-planting event will be led by His Excellency, President Cyril Ramaphosa, ahead of the national Heritage Day commemoration.

In addition, tree-planting activities will take place across all nine provinces as part of Heritage Day celebrations, led by Premiers and/or MECs responsible for environmental affairs.

The campaign to plant ten million trees contributes to climate resilience, promotes environmental awareness, and encourages individuals and organisations to actively participate in greening their communities.

Members of the media are invited to attend and cover the events as follows:

Pretoria event

Date: 24 September 2026
Time: 09h00
Venue: Freedom Park Heritage Site, Corner Koch and 7th Avenue, Salvokop, Pretoria

Noordgesig Soweto event

Date: 24 September 2026
Time: 12:00
Venue: Noordgesig Community Hall, Noordgesig, Soweto

Note to Editors

Members of the media are encouraged to contact their respective provincial environmental departments for details on Ten Million Trees campaign activities taking place in their localities.

RSVP:
Evile Ntshangase
Cell: 072 211 6964
E-mail: [email protected]

Banele MabenaCell: 066 420 0144E-mail: [email protected]

Enquiries:
Michael Mokoena
Cell: 082 906 5795

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