Addressing an international audience at Africa Oil Week in Cape Town this week, mineral resources & energy minister Gwede Mantashe took the opportunity to double down on his recent attacks on civil society organisations that have opposed new fossil fuel exploration and developments in SA.
“Foreign funded NGOs are being used to weaponise environmental preservation to block development in developing nations. This is a reality that we are faced within SA, hence we demand that these NGOs be registered and be made to declare their source of funding as it is done with political parties,” he said.
This was after he levelled similar accusations at the Southern Africa Oil and Gas Conference in Cape Town in September.
It is no secret that some of these NGOs are funded by foreign and local donors, and many already disclose this information on their websites.
But while these NGOs might receive foreign funding, it is hard to imagine they have deeper pockets than the oil and gas companies that are lobbying for new fossil fuel developments in SA — they even have the minister lobbying on their behalf!
Challenges by NGOs to new fossil fuel developments and the many leniencies government granted to major polluters, fail more often than they succeed. And Mantashe knows this very well.
The narrative that SA is being forced by rich countries to “abandon” fossil fuels such as coal and move to renewable energy is not only being pushed by Mantashe, but also by many members of the cabinet.
This is false. There is broad consensus; even the Presidential Climate Commission agrees that SA will still rely on coal-fired power and probably gas-to-power plants at least until 2040.
This narrative also ignores what should be obvious. Many South Africans, not just rich foreigners, are justifiably concerned about climate change and how unabated development of new fossil fuel projects could worsen the effects they will suffer because of it.
As for blocking development, nobody has done more to block development in SA than the ANC-led government, which has overseen the destruction of critical services such as electricity supply, water infrastructure and railways.
Mantashe seems to assume, wrongly, that a just transition is somehow the antithesis of growth and development. This is while we know that government support for the manufacture of electric vehicles, mining of critical minerals and the establishment of renewable energy value chains could unlock economic growth that SA has not seen in decades.
But the government’s campaign against NGOs does not end with wild public accusations.
The cabinet recently approved draft legislation, the General Intelligence Laws Amendment Bill, that will require those who want to establish and operate NGOs or religious institutions to undergo security vetting over which the relevant minister will have the final say.
As constitutional law expert Pierre de Vos wrote in an article for Daily Maverick, the bill does not outline the consequences of being denied security clearance, which suggests that “the regulations issued by the minister will be used to impose restrictions on those who operate NGOs or religious institutions who fail to get security clearance”.
Reining in NGOs is just another way to rein in freedom of expression.
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