The Presidential Climate Commission is conducting a series of community engagement sessions in March and April to get input from workers in priority transition hotspots, such as the Mpumalanga highveld region, Lephalale in Limpopo, Durban South in KwaZulu-Natal and Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape.
According to the commission, which was established in 2020 by President Cyril Ramaphosa to advise the government on the country’s climate change response and develop a Just Transition Framework for SA, the community engagements were being held to give affected communities an opportunity to share their expectations of a just and inclusive transition.
One of the aspects of SA’s “just transition” from a high- to low-carbon economy that have been highlighted by ministers and other government officials is the need for this transition to be inclusive and to address the concerns of those groups in society that would be disproportionately affected by proposed changes.
That includes communities who live and work in those areas and industries where fossil-based energy operations, such as coal mining, refineries and Eskom’s coal-fired power stations make a significant contribution to employment and the economy.
However, at the first three meetings that were held in eMalahleni in Mpumalanga, Lephalale in Limpopo and in Durban, some of the community members who attended the sessions were disappointed and frustrated as the meetings were predominantly held in English.
In some instances, commissioners had to step in to provide impromptu translations.
The commission told Business Day that it was “sensitive to the linguistic and cultural diversity across our country” and that it had tried to bridge language gaps by having the secretariat staff facilitating by providing summary translations after inputs from the floor or presentations.
“However, we do recognise that we can hone the balance a bit more and we will incorporate better translation capacity going forward considering the local context,” said commission spokesperson Rorisang Moseli.
She added that for hearing-impaired attendees, they had brought in the services of a sign language interpreter.
The meeting in Durban also showed that people in communities affected by the pollution generated from polluting activities, wanted the consequences of past pollution to be dealt with before the country started moving forward to a just transition.
Commissioner Bobby Peek said that South Durban was an important economic hub in that province where two-thirds of SA’s fuel travelled through. The halt in production and possible closure of Sapref, SA’s largest oil refinery, and the planned closure of Engen’s refinery in Durban was of big concern for the commission and the South Durban community, many of whom who are employed by these refineries, he said.
“We hope we will be able to build a better industrialisation plan for South Durban that is cleaner and employs more people,” Peek said.
But community members at the meeting said that those refineries should not be allowed to “close-up shop and leave” without dealing with the “legacy of pollution” that they left behind.
Prof Rajen Naidoo of the school of nursing and public health at the University of KwaZulu-Natal said referral studies had shown the adverse health affects that refinery operations have had on communities in Durban that were situated close to the refineries.
“South Durban is already in transition and many of the primary polluters are shutting down operations, but the question is, is that transition just? Unless we can address the concept of restorative justice, that transition won’t be just,” he said.
Community representatives objected to the March 31 deadline for written comments on the draft Just Transition Framework, saying it would pass before the commission’s series of community engagements had ended in April.
That prompted the commission to extend the deadline for written comments to April 30.
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