Gap for micro-enterprise

TINA Joemat-Pettersson resigned as an MP after President Jacob Zuma appointed ANC MP Mmamaloko Kubayi to replace her as energy minister. Last week, she apologised for mistakes she had made while in the executive. She had advocated for nuclear procurement and signed agreements with foreign countries.

Without specifying details, she said “I want to apologise humbly to my people, to my ANC and to my country for all my mistakes. Where I have failed you I want to ask for forgiveness, where I did not hear or I was harsh or where I wasn’t thinking and did the wrong thing.”

There was some suspicion the cabinet shuffle that removed her from the energy portfolio was driven by a behind-thescenes agenda to secure the nuclear deal for Russia. I’m not saying it was so, just pointing out how vital energy agendas are – and always have been – since Prometheus gave fire to humans. That made Zeus really cross, and he chained Prometheus to a mountain, where an eagle came daily to eat out his liver. Because of his immortality, it grew back overnight and he had to endure that pain on a daily basis. Joemat-Pettersson was feeling that pain last week.

But it is time for the whole government to repent and humble itself and to start listening more closely to NGOs and church voices. Humans now have fire – it has defined sapiens as a species for about 300 000 years. We use it daily. We continue to need hot water in our homes, light after the sun goes down and so forth. But we are not willing to trade our hard-won democracy for it.

Speaking of the gods of Olympus, the president recalled his finance minister from London, just days before the cabinet reshuffle in which Pravin Gordhan was also replaced by a sycophant minister.

Between him and the new energy minister, Zeus – I mean Zuma – appears to have positioned himself to pull off the deal with Russia and start conversion from coal-generated electricity to nuclear.

But this is where humans really brought down the gods of Olympus. Some mere NGOs and faith groups have battled the nuclear agenda in court for two years. The timing of the ruling was amazing – the judiciary blocked the deal.

It was not a decision about energy, it was about the rule of law and about scrupulously observing democratic protocols including public consultation.

So only weeks after Zuma’s cabinet reshuffle, came this setback for nuclear. In the intervening weeks, the closure of four coal-generating plants was announced. The reality remains 18 of the coal-fired stations generate 80% of South Africa’s power. If nuclear cannot come to the rescue, how do we meet our environmental commitments to reduce carbon emissions?

There’s a huge opportunity here to create clean green energy and to create employment for youth. Best of all at community level, not in a faraway mine or factory. The time is now for government to get serious about solar-thermal. Not just by giving away freebies as pre-election patronage (400 000 of the 500 000 solar water heaters installed on rooftops so far have been distributed like food aid).

The way forward must be to create a labour-intensive, jobs-centred sector in a niche somewhere between plumbers and electricians. Not the “bulk approach” of government tenders that lends itself to corruption, but micro-enterprise which is a panacea to kick-start any economy.

Do not underestimate the dimensions of heating domestic hot water in South Africa’s national energy requirements. More than half of the energy used in each of the 11 million homes in South Africa, is burned to heat water in electric geysers. This constitutes a lot of coal and carbon and a negative impact on our environment.

South Africa has an optimal climate for solar-thermal. India and Australia have had great success and in some countries like Cyprus and Israel, it is unlawful to heat domestic water with electricity.

Unlike photo-voltaic technology which generates electricity from sunlight using very expensive gadgets, solar-thermal heats water with simple devices which are relatively cheap. And you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to connect it up!

Minister Kubayi needs to lead the charge, not waste more time and money appealing the High Court nuclear decision. Nuclear will be back one day, but that will take time. In the meantime loadshedding will be back, and if so, when? The trumpcard to preventing it, is solarthermal.

Listen, Ms Kubayi, government cannot be both referee and player. Stop using tenderpreneurs and the bribe-based elite enrichment approach and make space for youth cooperatives and townships and rural enterprises.

Chuck Stephens is executive director of the Desmond Tutu Centre for Leadership. He writes in his personal capacity