A Just Energy Transition Must Prioritize People Over Profits, A Bottom-Up Approach

South Africa’s Just Energy Transition (JET) has been riddled with top-down decision making while grassroots communities suffer from weak energy infrastructure and are in dire need of a stable energy supply and yet have no meaningful voice. Led by the government and international partnerships, the JET has– up to now– failed to consult grassroot communities to establish their needs and include them in effective decision-making on energy projects.

“South Africa’s coal dependent and carbon-intense economy has proven to be unreliable and unsustainable. Part of addressing sustainability is ensuring that the just transition to renewable energy is driven from the bottom up, and not top-to bottom, so that it does not leave marginalised communities behind”
Lisa Makaula
The Green Connection

Commenting in a Just Energy Transition Webinar– hosted by The Green Connection earlier this month– Nontle Mbuthuma of the Amadiba Crisis Committee in the Wild Coast said, “among the many challenges that the Wild Coast community is faced with is unstable electricity infrastructure. We are supported by a very weak grid, when it is windy the electricity goes, when it is raining the electricity goes. We also have the issue of extractivism of fossil fuels. It is as though fossil fuels are the only energy solution in our country when there are more reliable renewable energy alternatives. We have people dying on the ground because of fossil fuel extraction, but nobody cares.”

Renewable energy generation– which is a safer and cheaper alternative to fossil fuel energy generation– has enormous potential to make economic impact on job creation and local entrepreneur participation. However, the JET Funding Platform which was initiated by the International Partners Group (IPG) in 2021, now led by the Presidential Climate Commission, is yet to address to the needs of young people and their economic inclusion and participation in the energy transition. The government has an opportunity to use the 4.7billion euro donation from the European Union to advance the JET and include the youth, local and community entrepreneurs in the green energy sector.

Government’s stride towards an inclusive just energy transition is moving at a
snail’s pace while continued infrastructure capacitation for fossil fuel generation is moving at rapid speed. The first draft of the IEP is only due on 31 March 2025, after a year-long drafting process, before it can be reviewed for public participation. Ninety percent of South African oceans are under lease, by multinationals, for oil and gas exploration and extraction- at any given moment- leaving marginalised communities to bear the brunt of environmental damage. Eskom has just expanded coal-fired energy generation at Kusile Power Station by 800MW.

“If we treat the just energy transition as just another way to switch the sources of energy that we use as opposed to seeing it as an opportunity to undo the systemic inequalities that exist in South Africa that would be extremely concerning. It is important to ensure that the transition does not lose touch with the grassroots.”
Sibusiso Mazomba
African Climate Alliance

An inclusive and community-focused IEP is one that addresses energy poverty, energy access and the urgent need to tackle climate change with the bottom-up approach being a central principle. With multinational corporations developing interest in oil and gas exploitation along the coast of South Africa, coastal communities have been struggling to advocate for sustainable ocean governance as means to protect and preserve their livelihood. The energy plan comes at a time when vulnerable communities suffer from limited energy access in South Africa.

"The heart of a just energy transition are the people and planet; but the people have been left out of the conversation. Klaasen says, “They should be involved at the beginning, middle, and end of the process and continue to be involved. That comes with the point of equity and accountability and those are non-negotiables, same as transparency and public participation. People know their daily struggles with electricity, food, water, gender injustice, and especially with inequality when it comes to housing or land; and they want to participate. The first step in prioritising justice is prioritising the people.”
Gabriel Klaasen
Project90 by 2030
“The voices of the marginalised people on the ground must be heard. The Wild Coast is experiencing much heavier rains and much higher temperatures than usual because of climate change. The pests destroying the harvest are of a much bigger size and these environmental issues affect our livelihoods. These are the issues the community wants discussed and addressed as part of the just transition. We must mobilise and say no to fossil fuel extraction, because national interests are always put before our community interests.”
Nonhle Mbuthuma
Amadiba Crisis Committee
"A people-oriented energy transition and especially one that in centered on women is important. Women tell us that the ocean is their heartbeat - they eat and live from the sea, they use the sea to heal. We are learning from how the Wild Coast managed to succeed in avoiding negative impacts to their environment and are now starting to work on ways that empower women so that they are not that susceptible to the tempt of mining "benefits."
Vainola Makan
Ubuntu Rural Women and Youth Movement

“The preamble of the South African Constitution declares every citizen’s right to participate in the economy. Determinations for participation, equal access to opportunities, protection of property, freedom to trade, and socio-economic support have been made. Communities have a right to decide for themselves how the just energy transition projects will benefit or affect them and what is acceptable. Transparency and consultation on the part of government regarding energy projects, which they bring to the communities, is crucial and up to now the government and the private sector have been lacking in transparency. If the communities do not benefit and address existing unjust power relations– for example ownership, from the transition– then it is not just. If it is not just, then it is not for us.” says Makhaula. 

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