Labour union leaders are dissatisfied with the process followed to include workers’ voices in planning for SA’s energy transition, which they believe will put entire industries at risk of job losses.
At a consultation session hosted by the Presidential Climate Commission (PCC) on Tuesday to discuss the Just Energy Transition Investment Plan (JET-IP), union representatives said they felt as if they were made to take part in a “tick-box exercise” in which they are expected to offer input after the fact.
Wandisile Pram, a representative of the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), told the commission that for the whole of 2022, when work on the JET-IP was under way, organised labour failed to be asked to be involved.
“Now that [the plan] is finished you rope in organised labour. The manner in which this is being done is not conducive for us to even call this a consultation,” Pram said.
The JET-IP, a R1.5-trillion plan, sets out SA’s financing needs between 2023 and 2027 to decarbonise the economy. It was drafted last year by the presidential climate task team headed by Daniel Mminele, who has since stepped down from the position.
The plan was endorsed by the cabinet and launched shortly before the UN’s COP27 climate conference in Egypt last year where it was presented by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The PCC did not formulate the JET-IP, but Ramaphosa tasked it with conducting a series of stakeholder consultations on it this year.
Joanne Yawitch, a commissioner on the PCC and CEO of the National Business Initiative who presented an outline of the JET-IP at the commission’s engagement with labour on Tuesday, said the feedback it has received is that there is “already a strong view” that provision made for social aspects such as skills development is “inadequate”.
The JET-IP has three priority areas: electricity, new energy vehicles and green hydrogen, and the bulk of the R1.5-trillion (about 80%) is earmarked for the transition and development of these industries.
In contrast, the plan allocates about R2.7bn (less than 1%) towards skills development. Yawitch pointed out, however, that to support workers in the coal industry, for example, the PCC wants to put in place a provision for spending about R5.6bn over the next five years “to support coal workers so that they are not left stranded with no income”.
At the very start of the meeting on Tuesday, Sidney Kgara from the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) objected to the timeline for the consultation process.
“Consultation is about meaningful influence so it must be done to not look like a tick-box exercise. Before COP27 there was a rush over the JET-IP and no meaningful consultation was done. There was no opportunity to make an input [on the plan] before it went to COP27. Consultation cannot now be done after [the plan] has been adopted by the cabinet,” he said.
Lebogang Mulaisi, head of policy at Cosatu and a on the PCC member, agreed with the objections raised by the unions, acknowledging that “the way things were done was not correct” and that the JET-IP went to COP27 to be presented to global leaders “without having buy-in from organised labour”.
One of the main concerns raised by unions — and not addressed in the JET-IP — was that implementation of the just transition plan would lead to privatisation of electricity generation in SA and might affect energy prices.
The PCC secretariat assured union leaders that the JET-IP can still be amended and said there will be further in-depth and in-person engagements with labour.
“As the PCC, we do not think the JET-IP is cast in concrete,” said Dipak Patel, the PCC’s head of climate finance and innovation.
Dr Crispian Olver, executive director of the PCC, said it intends to consolidate all comment received during the consultation process and make recommendations to the government on how the JET-IP should be amended.
“The plan is imperfect and there are many areas where it can be improved. We were hoping this [consultation process] will deepen [our understanding] of this,” he said.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.