Cape Town - Fresh from surviving the axe during President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Cabinet reshuffle, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe had to navigate through a protest to deliver his address at the Africa Energy Indaba on Tuesday.
Led by Greenpeace Africa activists, the protesters sought to highlight the impact of retaining fossil fuels in the country’s energy mix and Mantashe’s support of coal.
Greenpeace Africa's climate and energy campaigner, Thandile Chinyavanhu, said: “Coal is a dangerous deadend pushing South Africa to the brink of destruction, yet almost all of South Africa's electricity comes from an ancient fleet of coal-fired power stations which are literally falling apart, breaking down more quickly than they can be fixed.
“Fast tracking a shift to renewable energy is clearly the solution, but the biggest blocker in the way of getting us out of the oppressive darkness of the electricity crisis is standing at the podium today.”
However Mantashe appeared to be unfazed by the protesters holding placards with words, “Gwede stop blocking renewables” and “coal=corruption”.
Delivering his address to delegates at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, Mantashe blamed the continent’s underdevelopment on lack of electricity.
“Africa is endowed with resources such as coal, oil and gas needed for baseload energy to power our industrialisation.
“Our continent deserves the opportunity to develop its own oil and gas infrastructure storage, refinery, and distribution to cushion its people against the turbulence of global markets and thereby secure its continental energy needs.
“Unlike others, Africa must invest in the research of green technologies such as Carbon Capture, Use and Storage to minimise the impact on the planet,” he said.
“It is incumbent on all of us at this indaba to align technological innovations with the type of energy sources we can produce.
“Africa must take full custodianship of its energy and development trajectory and be certain of its outcomes.
“It is against this backdrop that financing of Africa’s Just Energy Transition must receive special concessions with more focus on developmental grants,” said Mantashe.
Energy poverty impeded Africa’s economic growth, he said, resulting in poverty and inequality, including the lack of access to electricity, unaffordability of energy, and load shedding.
“About 600 million Africans lack access to electricity which explains why Africa remains underdeveloped.
“We must, therefore, work together and mobilise financial support to solve Africa’s energy challenges which include lack of infrastructure.
“We must expand our grid capacity to enable generation, additional connections, and transmission.
This will enable Africa to generate enough electricity to power its economies, including industrialisation, manufacturing, and processing of its natural resources.
“What we cannot afford to lose sight of in this Just Energy Transition discourse is the fact that Africa is the lowest polluter compared with developed continents, even though we’re the most impacted today by the cumulative emissions generated during the industrialisation of others.”
Mantashe addressed Tuesday’s gathering a day after he survived being reshuffled when President Cyril Ramaphosa announced changes to his executive, appointing former head of investment and infrastructure in the Presidency Kgosientso Ramokgopa as the new Minister of Electricity – a move slammed by opposition parties.
Mantashe, along with his Public Enterprises counterpart Pravin Gordhan have been under pressure over the current energy crisis the country is facing, which has now been declared a state of national disaster.
Now they will be joined by Ramokgopa who will be tasked with liaising with other relevant ministers to ensure coherence in the issuing of other directions during the national state of disaster.
Ramakgopa, according to Ramaphosa, will remain in office only for as long as it is necessary to resolve the electricity crisis.
Cape Times