It’s time to uproot our archaic energy and mining regime
Pressure is mounting against Gwede Mantashe and the department of mineral resources & energy, accused of failing in their duty to the people of SA and delivering instead wilful blindness to climate change, scandals, human rights abuses and ecological dest
In the past couple of years, SA has lived through some of its worst load-shedding. The estimated economic cost has been in the hundreds of billions of rands, and we will have to face more years of it, due to government inaction to resolve the crisis. In addition to anger levelled at Eskom, growing outrage has been building against minister Gwede Mantashe’s department of mineral resources & energy (DMRE), which has time and time again blocked new renewable energy projects that would most quickly resolve our load-shedding crisis.
Eventually, outrage against Mantashe was so strong that in June President Cyril Ramaphosa overruled him to lift the licensing requirements on energy projects below 100MW — easing the way for new energy projects to be built.
But, even though Ramaphosa’s move will unlock new renewable energy, it threatens to drive a more privatised and corporate-dominated energy future. That’s in large part because Mantashe’s department has also failed to put in place policies to support a just transition to a more socially owned renewable energy future. It’s one of many failures.
Within the DMRE, waste, inefficiency and scandal abound. For example, recent investigations revealed that it wasted hundreds of millions of rands on storage costs for solar water geysers that it isn’t installing. Under Mantashe, the department also rigged the national electricity plan to favour unnecessary, polluting and expensive new coal projects.
Most recently, Mantashe and his department have been entangled in the controversy surrounding the R200bn Karpowership debacle. The fraught tender has landed the department in court, facing accusations of “corruption and a procedurally unfair” procurement process.
Doing everything in its power to stall a transition to renewable energy, Mantashe’s DMRE is rapidly working to lock SA into a future of fossil fuels by opening vast swathes of ocean and land to coal, oil, and gas exploration.
These polluting projects threaten to destroy livelihoods and devastate the ecosystems communities rely on. Many are also being pushed forward without meaningful participation and even against the wishes of communities, whose right to say no is being violated.
Meanwhile, the world’s top climate scientists are sounding an alarm: a “code red for humanity”. They warn that fossil fuel pollution is changing Earth’s climate in unprecedented ways, with some changes now inevitable and “irreversible”.
To avert the worst of the climate crisis, we have to do pretty much the opposite of what Mantashe’s department is doing. Demonstrating this clearly, the International Energy Agency recently released a report showing that we should not invest in any new fossil fuel extraction to meet the vital United Nations Paris Climate Agreement’s goal of keeping warming to 1.5°C
Driving us deeper into dangerous climate change, SA is one of the world’s most polluting nations. If every nation in the world were to follow our lead, global warming would reach 3°C-4°C. The difference between a 1.5°C and a 4°C world is “civilisation” as we know it, in the words of climate scientist professor Hans Joachim Schnellnhuber.
Mantashe spreads misinformation, claiming that renewables will spell economic ruin. However, researchers and economic reality have shown time and time again that the world has more than enough renewable energy potential to replace fossil fuels and more affordably meet the energy demands of every person in the world, while creating many more jobs than coal would.
Mantashe is out of step with both reality and his own party, which recently supported Eskom’s plans to forge ahead with a just transition to renewables. Mantashe, however, is objecting to and attempting to block Eskom’s move, thus posing a grave threat to our economy and environment.
Whether Mantashe likes it or not, the world and SA are transitioning away from fossil fuels. Our ageing coal infrastructure is due to retire and financiers refuse to fund new coal, knowing it to be an uneconomic and unwise waste of money.
As our coal plants and mines shut down, we will need to put in place policies for a just transition that protects workers and communities dependent on fossil fuels for their livelihoods. Thanks to Mantashe’s head being in the sand, though, the DMRE still has no action plan to do so.
The department has failed to respond to the crises of the moment. In the face of these failures, what is needed is a deep transformation of the DMRE, preferably starting with Mantashe stepping aside to allow for more progressive and capable leadership.
Responding to the reality of the 21st century, the department should recognise that we need a Green New Eskom leading a rapid and just transition to a renewable energy future. It should also facilitate more social ownership of renewable energy so the benefits are shared by the many, not just the few.
A transformed DMRE should enshrine, not violate, the fundamental democratic principle that communities have the right to say no to projects that threaten to harm them. It should also hold corporations accountable to promises they make to communities in social labour plans, rather than allowing them to leave behind legacies of pollution, degradation, and unemployment.
Rather than forcing us into an unsustainable coal-, oil- and gas-fuelled future, a DMRE suited to the 21st century should lead the charge towards a just transition to renewable energy. It must implement a plan — as many countries have — for a skills, jobs and training programme that creates millions of jobs and leaves no-one behind in the move away from coal.
As things stand, though, Mantashe and the DMRE are acting with brazen undemocratic impunity, refusing to move in response to petitions, marches and massive public outrage against it. It is long past time that the people of SA took decisive action to ensure Mantashe’s DMRE does not lock us into a future of deepening dysfunction and devastation.
That’s why this week — starting tomorrow, September 20 — we are part of a broad civil society coalition leading a nationwide mobilisation to protest against Mantashe and the DMRE under the banner of #UprootTheDMRE. If you care about affordable energy, climate change, or the future of our country, we hope you’ll join us.
To avert the worst of the climate crisis, we have to do pretty much the opposite of what Mantashe’s department is doing
Farrell is a volunteer action & advocacy co-ordinator with the youth-led African Climate Alliance. Sebei is president of the General Industries Workers Union of SA and works in the environmental justice programme at Lawyers for Human Rights. Shezi is treasurer of United Front Johannesburg and is an energy and climate justice activist with the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee. Lenferna is a climate justice campaigner with 350Africa.org and secretary of SA’s Climate Justice Coalition.