Mineral resources & energy minister Gwede Mantashe, a self-confessed coal fundamentalist, has dismissed the just energy transition as a mere term, saying the government has a duty to protect livelihoods.
“Coal is growing, it is generating revenue for the fiscus, it is doing well. Now, what do we do with it? Do we set it alight and destroy it? My argument is that let’s allow it to benefit [SA] as long as it can,” he said on Thursday.
He was delivering a keynote address during an energy summit convened by the SA Youth Economic Council in Johannesburg, which discussed the country’s just transition plan and its developmental economic objectives.
The country has had its fair share of load-shedding due to regular breakdowns of coal-fired power stations such as Kusile and Medupi, among others, with load-shedding said to have cost the economy more than R400bn.
Mantashe, who was a mineworker for 31 years, said coal mining had given blacks access to ownership, and the government could not shut down coal generation overnight.
Last year the UK, US, France, Germany and the EU offered to mobilise an initial $8.5bn over the next three to five years to support SA’s transition from fossil fuels, including accelerating the decommissioning of SA’s ageing coal-fired power plants.
Mantashe, who refused to attend the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, arguing that “many people will be frightened” or even ask why a “coal fundamentalist” is there, said any decision on coal phase-out must be systematic.
“It must protect livelihoods. To me just transition is a term. Just transition is a transition from high carbon emissions to low carbon emissions. Others say it’s a transition to renewables. But I say: ‘no, no, it’s a transition from high carbon emissions to low carbon emissions’,” he said.
“The president [Cyril Ramaphosa] says I’m a coal fundamentalist, it’s a title that I’ve earned,” he chuckled.
“This thing of saying destroy coal quickly is second to Nongqawuse ... a prophet who said we must kill all our cattle and we will be rich. We are still waiting for those riches.
“I’m saying, you don’t destroy what you have on the basis of hope that something better is coming. You build on what you know and what you have.”
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