By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema has called on party members to lead workers and communities to reject the agenda to collapse South Africa’s coal mining sector through government Just Energy Transition.
Malema was addressing hundred of delegates from across the party’s national, provincial and regional structures on Gauteng’s east rand on Friday night.
He said that western countries have given President Cyril Ramaphosa $8.5 billion dollars to abandon coal in favour of renewable energy even as countries such as Germany and the United States increase their coal use.
There is no plan to transition to a renewable energy source in a way that will secure jobs and ensure energy security in South Africa and to make matters worse there have been no consultations with South Africans about the planned closing of coal power stations.
“We must lead the revolt in these communities but more importantly, the EFF must begin to develop a coherent and practical energy policy to protect the environment and jobs while not having the dangerous influence of the west.”
The European Union (EU) announced on Friday it would invest more than 280 million euros in grants in South Africa to help the country green its coal-dependent economy.
Through this partnership with South Africa, the Just and Green Recovery Team Europe Initiative will support the country in achieving its national goal to tackle the country’s pressing socio-economic challenges through policy dialogue, facilitating investment, including for public infrastructure and to unlock a sustainable, biodiversity friendly and circular economy and combat climate change.
For example, €40 million of EU grant funding will be used to facilitate investment in public infrastructure in South Africa through blended finance.
Additionally, under the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), Germany, France and the EU will provide financing of more than $3 billion to South Africa.
Africa has become a renewed diplomatic battleground since the Ukraine war began, with South Africa and other countries on the continent aggressively courted by Russia and China and the West.
The EU said the money came as part of the bloc’s recently unveiled Global Gateway initiative, which is in part aimed at countering China’s growing influence.
Meanwhile US Treasury chief Janet Yellen, who was also in South Africa on Friday, said Washington is contributing more than $1-billion under the scheme dubbed the Just Energy Transition Partnership.
The US “is firmly committed to this engagement,” she said, as she visited Mpumalanga province, South Africa’s coal mining hub.
Recent studies suggest more jobs will be created than lost in South Africa by going green, but analysts say the swap will not be painless.
“We must demonstrate quickly that these coal communities… will not be left behind in the context of an energy shift that benefits other regions,” Yellen said after touring a US-funded renewable energy job training facility for women.