No need to be miffed Minister Mantashe

Randfontein Mine, Johannesburg by Paul Saad via Wikimedia Commons

In the mid-nineties, one of my parliamentary colleagues was listening to a debate on environmental issues. “All these environmental issues” he sighed. “These guys care more about f$%&ng proteas than people!”

He was wrong, of course. In fact, the debate was about the protection of scarce water resources in his constituency. If it had not succeeded, the people he represented would have suffered tremendously. 

I was reminded of this story recently when Minister Gwede Mantashe had, in what can only be described as a rant, raved against environmentalists when he met with the Mining Industry. Let me say from the start that I completely understand that Ministers want to push for their portfolios – just on the off chance that there might be a cabinet reshuffle in the near future. I also understand that in Minister Mantashe’s case, there is an emotional connection with mining given his past as a NUM leader. 

However, his repeated attacks on environmental NGOs is doing him and the country absolutely no favours. 

It is clear that the Minister is miffed that his department has recently lost a number of court cases relating to exploration and surveying in ecologically sensitive areas. 

So, he lashed out.

He firstly accused Environmental NGOs of getting foreign funding. Eh, so what?

So, did the ANC for years – shall I dare mention the G-word? All major political parties get funding from abroad. So, if the Minister is insinuating that the fact that NGO’s get foreign funding means that they are at the behest of their funders, we should surely also be able to deduce that the ANC (including the Minister) are in the pocket of organisations (including Shell) that have funded the ANC in the past. 

He then bemoaned the fact that this funding made it possible for the NGOs to hire very powerful lawyers that resulted in them winning court cases. Surely, he is not suggesting that the state is forced to go to little one-person, back street law firms?

However, there is a far more dangerous narrative that the Minister keeps on pushing. Like my friend from parliament, he keeps suggesting that the environmentalists are more interested in (to use his words) “butterflies than people”. 

He accuses those (many of whom are from poor communities) protesting against the extracting industries of not caring about economic development and being oblivious to the plight of the poorest of the poor. He even goes as far as suggesting that the environmentalists represent colonial interests, calling it “apartheid of new order.” 

It is of course extremely ironic to suggest that companies like Shell care about the poorest of the poor. There are endless examples throughout the developing world to suggest otherwise. (While I’m at it – as a Dutch-based multi-national, are they not also the definition of colonial interests?)

Colonial interests and apartheid insults aside - the distinction between people and environment that the minister keeps using is a false distinction.

Report after report has now established that climate change affects the poorest of the poor disproportionally.

The rich can always buffer themselves from the fallout - the poor simply do not have the resources to do so. 

So, if we care about the most vulnerable in our society and the world, we have to slow climate change, and the only way to do that is to reduce the extraction and use of materials such as coal and methane dramatically – NOT increase it.

Of course, the Minister also argues that these industries would create jobs. It goes without saying that we have to address the unemployment issue in our country. However, it has also been established that industries such as off-shore gas fields will create a minimal number of low-skilled jobs. The majority of jobs would require highly skilled workers, thus not benefitting the local communities at all. 

It has also been conclusively determined that green energy will create more jobs than coal mining. Rebecca Davis pointed out in a recent article that a report by the Energy Research Group in 2021 suggests that the Minister’s continued plans to add more coal to South Africa’s energy mix would cost around R23-billion more than some other options and cause 25,000 job losses by 2030. 

Unsurprisingly, the Minister does not like this report, but if we are serious about job creation there is no question that we should support green energy industries and not coal or gas. 

The Minister also suggested that environmentalists are destroying foreign investment opportunities. Again, this is a false narrative. There seems to be an almost limitless flow of money for green energy. In fact, I have been told repeatedly that there are not enough projects in South Africa to invest the money available from private investors. 

That is before you get to the Green Energy financing deal. As Carol Paton highlighted recently, this $8.5 billion (R132.5 billion) deal is dependent on South Africa having very definite plans to reduce emission targets and thus moving away from amongst others, coal-generated energy generation.

It is therefore not the environmentalists that are putting investment and job creation at risk, but the Minister and his insistence on antiquated policies. 

So instead of having a hissy fit about environmentalists and trying to undermine their integrity through false narratives every time he hobnobs with the mining captains, the Minister should rather focus on supporting those industries that can make a real difference to the lives of the poorest of the poor. 

Not only will these industries create jobs for many of the unemployed, but they will ensure that the lights stay on for those who can’t afford generators or battery packs. Oh, and they will also make it possible for the most vulnerable in our societies to start breathing clean air and not die of air pollution caused by nearby coal power stations.