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This video video discusses the significant socioeconomic upheaval in South Africa, primarily driven by the country's highly industrialized economy, rooted in its colonial history and the establishment of the mineral energy complex, particularly focused on coal mining and power generation. This video video complex has been central to economic and political struggles, with vested interests tied to both historical apartheid structures and current elite groups seeking government contracts and control over energy resources.

The mineral energy complex is crucial not only for political elites but also for the livelihoods of approximately 200,000 workers and their dependents in coal-related jobs. The urgency to reform this system is underscored by South Africa's status as a major global carbon emitter, raising concerns over climate change impacts, especially since the country contributes to pollution in less industrialized neighboring nations.

The document highlights global pressures for a just energy transition, particularly following agreements made during the COP climate summits with Western donors. However, the transition raises complex political challenges, including fears among working-class communities about job losses and economic instability associated with dismantling the coal sector. Many workers express anxiety about rapid changes without proper consultation, training, or planning for a post-coal future.

The current situation is marked by a divergence between labor unions and the ruling party, with growing concerns over the speed of the energy transition and who stands to benefit from it. Workers and unions are demanding a slower transition to ensure their livelihoods and involvement in decision-making processes. This video video concludes that the South African government must prioritize these local community concerns while pursuing decarbonization to avoid political instability and ensure both environmental and social justice.

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It really does constitute one of the largest,

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probably the largest socioeconomic upheaval

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in recent South African history.

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And, and primarily because the economy in South Africa is

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extremely, highly industrialized,

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particularly for an African state.

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And this is in large part

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because of colonial legacies

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of the rapid industrialization of the country.

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And a lot of that industrialization was built upon

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what we call the mineral energy complex in South Africa,

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which was the establishment of a significant mining area

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around coal in Langa, in South Africa at the moment.

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And the connection

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of those mines into the emerging power stations,

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the coal fired power stations were,

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which were really the engine room

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of South Africa's industrialization.

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And what is important then about that, is

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that this mineral energy complex that incorporates,

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a lot of business interest, both during the apartheid era,

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it had the vested interests

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of the mining companies producing the coal

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for the power stations,

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but also the state owned company Escom,

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that was producing the power in the power stations.

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That has always been a site of vested political interests

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and the economic interest attached to it.

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And both during the apartheid era,

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but particularly now in, in post apartheid South Africa,

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it has been a focal point of struggles for

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who can control access

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to very lucrative government contracts for coal,

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for the operation

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of the power stations themselves have become a rich source

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of rent seeking for a lot of, a lot of elites connected

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to the ruling party.

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And this has been a focal point of some

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of the most significant corruption scandals in South

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Africa's history, and it's subject

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of a major national inquiry.

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So upsetting this, mineral energy complex is very,

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very significant in terms of those elite interests.

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But it's also important in terms

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of working class communities themselves.

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There's around two to 300,000 people

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who are dependent on the coal value chain

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for their employment in South Africa.

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So this is gonna affect a lot of communities who are

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located in and around the power stations in

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and around those coal mines themselves.

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And if you think about each of those workers

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who are employed, for example, in the mines

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or in a power station, usually they'll have a ratio of

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around about eight dependents on that one wage.

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So those wage earners have to support a whole network

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of livelihoods connected to their wage in that household.

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But beyond that as well,

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there are all the interconnected jobs around this economy.

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So the people who will be selling, produce,

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whether they're kind of small spaza shops around the

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coal mines and the power stations, people

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who are selling basic day-to-day food

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for those workers going in and out of those power stations.

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So it's a really huge economic interest both

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for those elites who have enriched themselves out of these,

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lucrative sources of, of wealth accumulation,

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but also for those working ca class communities, very,

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very dependent upon their jobs in this sector.

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Yeah. So it's, it's hugely significant in terms

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of why this needs to be reformed, right?

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Because South Africa is roundabout the 12 largest

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per capita carbon emitter in the world, right?

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It's a really significant polluter in a continent

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that is largely not responsible for climate change, but

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nonetheless bears a lot of the impacts

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of climate change on it.

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So it's in a kind of contradictory location

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that on the one hand it's a champion for African interest,

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but at the same time, South Africa is responsible for a lot

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of the pollution that its neighboring

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countries are experiencing.

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Uh, in terms of the impacts of climate change.

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Um, we can see the impacts

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of climate change on South African,

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climate at the moment in terms of, flooding

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and various other kinds of concerns around temperatures.

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So there is really an urgent need for a,

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a transformation in South Africa.

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And as a particular focal point is the power sector

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because scom, the state power,

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utility is the single largest emitter

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of carbon in South Africa.

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So that's why it's become a kind

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of international focal point of transition.

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And I say international

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because one of the reasons why South Africa is well

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and truly, you know, a, a global focal point

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of energy transition is that there's been a drive to towards

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financing developing, states like South Africa,

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from the global north.

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So for example, we've got the just energy transition

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partnership that was struck at COP 26

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and then subsequently expanded,

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and clarified in the just energy transition investment

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plan at COP 27.

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And these agreements between South Africa

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and Western donors, including the us, Germany, France,

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and Great Britain, these represented some

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of the most significant agreements to come out

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of those cop summits.

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And indeed the financing

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of the energy transition in South Africa that emerged from

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that, that was going to be funded through,

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through Western finance in the form of loans

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that was really significant in terms of being seen

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as a blueprint for other countries in the global south to,

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strike these agreements with the Western donors.

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And so it's become this kind of global focal point

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and indeed a test case of

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what a just energy transition might look like.

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And there's a lot of global pressure for South Africa

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to accelerate with these reforms in the energy sector.

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It's really like this is a real kind of important moment

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where you get these international drives

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for energy transition for very good reason, right?

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Because as I've said, you know, we need to decarbonize

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as a global society.

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And you know, South Africa has been a major

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polluter in its own right,

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But when you get this situation where the dynamics

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of South Africa is this high level

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of dependence on the coal value chain

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for ordinary people's jobs,

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this then becomes inherently political

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because of those inequalities that were generated by,

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colonialism and apartheid, in South Africa,

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the establishment of the mineral,

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mineral energy complex in the first place was part

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and parcel of a kind of racial capitalism

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that really entrenched systemic inequalities around race,

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class, and gender.

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And so when it comes to kind of tackling and,

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and attempting to dismantle the mineral energy complex,

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it is inherently a political process

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because on the one hand, it's threatening those jobs

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of people, those working class communities,

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and their wider networks of dependences.

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It's threatening those vested economic interests,

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those business elites, those political elites

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who have benefited over the decades from this

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mineral energy complex.

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But it's also inherently political and politicized

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because the way in which a lot

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of this pressure is coming externally from foreign donors.

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And so it raises them big issues about post-colonial

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sovereignty, about whether South Africa is being pressured

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by the big boys in the West to decarbonize at a rate, pace

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and scale that we're not necessarily seeing

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elsewhere in the world.

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And so it raises whole issues

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around South Africa's energy security

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who's determining the agenda.

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And so when it becomes so ve, you know, so dangerous

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for some of these vested interests

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and those communities dependent upon it,

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it becomes inherently politicized.

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And quite often this transition gets framed in very kind

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of racialized understandings about politics

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and about who's benefiting and who's pushing what agendas

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and for whose benefit.

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Yeah, it's, it's something

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that we're looking into at, at the moment.

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And, you know, I've gotta be honest, the, the, the answer

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to it is quite mixed.

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Um, what I would say overall, if, if I was trying

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to summarize it, is that there's a, a real like

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fear and anxiety amongst a lot of working class communities

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with regard to what's happening.

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And that stems from a lack of clear understanding about

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what these processes are, whose agendas are being pushed,

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the pace of the transition, the the, the lack

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of consultation as they see it around some

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of these critical decisions.

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And there's a real kind of concern

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that these fundamental changes to their communities,

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the concerns about ghost towns being created in the

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Langa region, where all the mines

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and the power stations are,

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this is really generating this kind of anxieties.

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And, and I guess at the moment, in terms

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of working class responses, I,

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I don't think there is a coherent working class response

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in, in initially.

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You've got a situation where some of the trade unions,

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which were very powerful in South Africa as well as NGOs

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had come together and worked

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with the South African government

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for a just transition framework, which was broad

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and ambitious in its scope,

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but was ultimately quite vague in terms

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of the operationalization of that transition in terms of

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what exactly would happen at what kind of time,

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who would benefit, how would working class communities be

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protected from some of the, the, impacts of all of this.

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And when it has come to the actual operationalization

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of the just transition, that's where we're starting

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to see some of the concerns

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and contradictions coming out

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where we see power stations being closed down without

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adequate kind of planning and preparation for

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how those communities

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and the workers working within them can transition to a,

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a new kind of, post coal power station, moment.

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So I think at the moment, you know, the response is, is one

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of real concern and anxiety, a lack of coordination

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and a real sense of estrangement from the people

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who are setting the agenda, whether they see that

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as people being within Pretoria or overseas.

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So what we're doing at the moment is we're working with,

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the Sam Ban Research Institute in Johannesburg that is,

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connected to the National Union of Mine workers,

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and we're working with them so that we can,

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interview those workers

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and working class representatives

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and leaders who are right at the kind of coalface,

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as it were of this transition.

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And what we've found so far is, you know, once again,

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this kind of sense of fear

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and anxiety about what's being, pushed here.

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But in particular, what we're interested in

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is their concerns and how they're directed.

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And at the moment, what we can see is very real

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divergences emerging between the unions

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and the ruling party a NC government in Pretoria.

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Now, these unions historically have been aligned

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with the ruling party,

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and to this day will still be supporting them as they come

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to an election in a, a couple of months time.

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But what we're seeing now is increasingly divergent

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around this issue of, of a just energy transition,

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particularly because of concerns about the speed

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and the pace of the transition that's being pushed,

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as they see it by the South African government

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and foreign donors.

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A real concern about who is benefiting from this

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and a whole load of, ideas, whether you,

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I wouldn't necessarily dismiss them entirely

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as conspiracy theories,

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but it's certainly concerns about

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who is profiteering from this transition.

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Certainly loom large.

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There's also concerns about inequities of this

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that have emerged in the interviews we've done so far.

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So a lot of workers are very articulate in being able

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to point to the global injustices of this.

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The way in which, for example, demand

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for South African coal on export markets continues

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to be very, very high, particularly in light of the Russia,

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Ukraine, war and demand from Europe

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for South African coal reaching new high levels at

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that particular moment in time, a a a year or two ago.

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And so they're pointing to some of the kind

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of global inconsistencies around the promotion

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of carbon reductions in South Africa,

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and a real sense of, well, why are we being pushed first?

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Um, and I think what we can see with that is

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increasingly some of the unions digging in over this,

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like trying to at least set back the pace of the transition,

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calling for, the, the closure of power stations

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to be delayed in particular, so

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that more consultation can happen so that we can have,

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greater, training put in place reeducation opportunities

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for those workers in their communities.

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And look, they, they're able to align themselves with,

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political and economic elites who are also looking

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to postpone and delay the dismantling

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of the mineral energy complex.

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So it's a really kind of messy political world at the moment

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that we're kind of looking into here.

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And I think, you know, it really reveals some of those

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fundamental contradictions of the,

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push towards a transition at the moment in South Africa.

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And I think, you know, in terms of where things are going

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and, and in terms of

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what we're looking into in the research is, well,

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is there a way beyond this?

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Because some of these workers are saying, look,

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if we're not heard, we're gonna make South Africa

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ungovernable, which is a reference to some of the kind of

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tactics and strategies deployed by the anti apartheid

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resistance movement when it tried to make the country un

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bull back in the 1970s and 1980s.

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And the fact that unionists who are in, you know,

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important positions who are in, in many cases, members

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of the ruling party, the fact that they're using this kind

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of language to talk about what lies ahead

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and the kind of resistance that they might try

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to conjure up if they're not heard and

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and listened to in this transition, I think speaks

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to a longer term challenge for South Africa as it looks

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to move and decarbonize, because it absolutely has to,

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but it's really gotta take on board the

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concerns of these communities.

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Otherwise, the political fallout

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and consequences of it could mean

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that actually those attempts

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to decarbonize in the first place could be at best stalled,

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or in some ca cases completely derailed,

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which would undermine environmental justice as well

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as the social justice, which is at stake here as well.

South Africa's Socioeconomic Upheaval and Energy Challenges

00:00:00 - It really does constitute one of the largest, probably the largest socioeconomic upheaval in recent South African history. And, and primarily because the economy in South Africa is extremely, highly industrialized, particularly for an African state. And this is in large part because of colonial legacies of the rapid industrialization of the country. And a lot of that industrialization was built upon what we call the mineral energy complex in South Africa, which was the establishment of a significant mining area
00:00:37 - And the connection of those mines into the emerging power stations, the coal fired power stations were, which were really the engine room of South Africa's industrialization. And what is important then about that, is that this mineral energy complex that incorporates, a lot of business interest, both during the apartheid era, it had the vested interests of the mining companies producing the coal
00:01:05 - but also the state owned company Escom, that was producing the power in the power stations. That has always been a site of vested political interests and the economic interest attached to it. And both during the apartheid era, but particularly now in, in post apartheid South Africa, it has been a focal point of struggles for who can control access to very lucrative government contracts for coal, for the operation of the power stations themselves have become a rich source
00:01:39 - to the ruling party. And this has been a focal point of some of the most significant corruption scandals in South Africa's history, and it's subject of a major national inquiry. So upsetting this, mineral energy complex is very, very significant in terms of those elite interests. But it's also important in terms of working class communities themselves. There's around two to 300,000 people who are dependent on the coal value chain
00:02:06 - So this is gonna affect a lot of communities who are located in and around the power stations in and around those coal mines themselves. And if you think about each of those workers who are employed, for example, in the mines or in a power station, usually they'll have a ratio of around about eight dependents on that one wage. So those wage earners have to support a whole network of livelihoods connected to their wage in that household. But beyond that as well,
00:02:38 - So the people who will be selling, produce, whether they're kind of small spaza shops around the coal mines and the power stations, people who are selling basic day-to-day food for those workers going in and out of those power stations. So it's a really huge economic interest both for those elites who have enriched themselves out of these, lucrative sources of, of wealth accumulation, but also for those working ca class communities, very,

South Africa's Urgent Energy Transition Challenge

00:03:08 - Yeah. So it's, it's hugely significant in terms of why this needs to be reformed, right? Because South Africa is roundabout the 12 largest per capita carbon emitter in the world, right? It's a really significant polluter in a continent that is largely not responsible for climate change, but nonetheless bears a lot of the impacts of climate change on it. So it's in a kind of contradictory location that on the one hand it's a champion for African interest,
00:03:39 - of the pollution that its neighboring countries are experiencing. in terms of the impacts of climate change. we can see the impacts of climate change on South African, climate at the moment in terms of, flooding and various other kinds of concerns around temperatures. So there is really an urgent need for a, a transformation in South Africa. And as a particular focal point is the power sector because scom, the state power,
00:04:11 - of carbon in South Africa. So that's why it's become a kind of international focal point of transition. And I say international because one of the reasons why South Africa is well and truly, you know, a, a global focal point of energy transition is that there's been a drive to towards financing developing, states like South Africa, from the global north. So for example, we've got the just energy transition
00:04:42 - and then subsequently expanded, and clarified in the just energy transition investment plan at COP 27. And these agreements between South Africa and Western donors, including the us, Germany, France, and Great Britain, these represented some of the most significant agreements to come out of those cop summits. And indeed the financing of the energy transition in South Africa that emerged from that, that was going to be funded through,
00:05:15 - that was really significant in terms of being seen as a blueprint for other countries in the global south to, strike these agreements with the Western donors. And so it's become this kind of global focal point and indeed a test case of what a just energy transition might look like. And there's a lot of global pressure for South Africa to accelerate with these reforms in the energy sector. It's really like this is a real kind of important moment
00:05:45 - for energy transition for very good reason, right? Because as I've said, you know, we need to decarbonize as a global society. And you know, South Africa has been a major polluter in its own right, But when you get this situation where the dynamics of South Africa is this high level of dependence on the coal value chain for ordinary people's jobs, this then becomes inherently political because of those inequalities that were generated by,

Navigating the Challenges of Energy Transition

00:06:19 - the establishment of the mineral, mineral energy complex in the first place was part and parcel of a kind of racial capitalism that really entrenched systemic inequalities around race, class, and gender. And so when it comes to kind of tackling and, and attempting to dismantle the mineral energy complex, it is inherently a political process because on the one hand, it's threatening those jobs of people, those working class communities,
00:06:48 - It's threatening those vested economic interests, those business elites, those political elites who have benefited over the decades from this mineral energy complex. But it's also inherently political and politicized because the way in which a lot of this pressure is coming externally from foreign donors. And so it raises them big issues about post-colonial sovereignty, about whether South Africa is being pressured by the big boys in the West to decarbonize at a rate, pace
00:07:22 - elsewhere in the world. And so it raises whole issues around South Africa's energy security who's determining the agenda. And so when it becomes so ve, you know, so dangerous for some of these vested interests and those communities dependent upon it, it becomes inherently politicized. And quite often this transition gets framed in very kind of racialized understandings about politics and about who's benefiting and who's pushing what agendas and for whose benefit.
00:07:51 - that we're looking into at, at the moment. And, you know, I've gotta be honest, the, the, the answer to it is quite mixed. what I would say overall, if, if I was trying to summarize it, is that there's a, a real like fear and anxiety amongst a lot of working class communities with regard to what's happening. And that stems from a lack of clear understanding about what these processes are, whose agendas are being pushed, the pace of the transition, the the, the lack
00:08:25 - of these critical decisions. And there's a real kind of concern that these fundamental changes to their communities, the concerns about ghost towns being created in the Langa region, where all the mines and the power stations are, this is really generating this kind of anxieties. And, and I guess at the moment, in terms of working class responses, I, I don't think there is a coherent working class response in, in initially. You've got a situation where some of the trade unions,
00:08:58 - had come together and worked with the South African government for a just transition framework, which was broad and ambitious in its scope, but was ultimately quite vague in terms of the operationalization of that transition in terms of what exactly would happen at what kind of time, who would benefit, how would working class communities be protected from some of the, the, impacts of all of this. And when it has come to the actual operationalization

Concerns Over South Africa's Energy Transition

00:09:28 - to see some of the concerns and contradictions coming out where we see power stations being closed down without adequate kind of planning and preparation for how those communities and the workers working within them can transition to a, a new kind of, post coal power station, moment. So I think at the moment, you know, the response is, is one of real concern and anxiety, a lack of coordination and a real sense of estrangement from the people
00:09:59 - as people being within Pretoria or overseas. So what we're doing at the moment is we're working with, the Sam Ban Research Institute in Johannesburg that is, connected to the National Union of Mine workers, and we're working with them so that we can, interview those workers and working class representatives and leaders who are right at the kind of coalface, as it were of this transition. And what we've found so far is, you know, once again,
00:10:30 - and anxiety about what's being, pushed here. But in particular, what we're interested in is their concerns and how they're directed. And at the moment, what we can see is very real divergences emerging between the unions and the ruling party a NC government in Pretoria. Now, these unions historically have been aligned with the ruling party, and to this day will still be supporting them as they come to an election in a, a couple of months time.
00:11:04 - around this issue of, of a just energy transition, particularly because of concerns about the speed and the pace of the transition that's being pushed, as they see it by the South African government and foreign donors. A real concern about who is benefiting from this and a whole load of, ideas, whether you, I wouldn't necessarily dismiss them entirely as conspiracy theories, but it's certainly concerns about who is profiteering from this transition.
00:11:33 - There's also concerns about inequities of this that have emerged in the interviews we've done so far. So a lot of workers are very articulate in being able to point to the global injustices of this. The way in which, for example, demand for South African coal on export markets continues to be very, very high, particularly in light of the Russia, Ukraine, war and demand from Europe for South African coal reaching new high levels at that particular moment in time, a a a year or two ago.
00:12:04 - of global inconsistencies around the promotion of carbon reductions in South Africa, and a real sense of, well, why are we being pushed first? and I think what we can see with that is increasingly some of the unions digging in over this, like trying to at least set back the pace of the transition, calling for, the, the closure of power stations to be delayed in particular, so that more consultation can happen so that we can have,

Political Tensions in South Africa's Energy Transition

00:12:37 - for those workers in their communities. And look, they, they're able to align themselves with, political and economic elites who are also looking to postpone and delay the dismantling of the mineral energy complex. So it's a really kind of messy political world at the moment that we're kind of looking into here. And I think, you know, it really reveals some of those fundamental contradictions of the, push towards a transition at the moment in South Africa.
00:13:10 - and, and in terms of what we're looking into in the research is, well, is there a way beyond this? Because some of these workers are saying, look, if we're not heard, we're gonna make South Africa ungovernable, which is a reference to some of the kind of tactics and strategies deployed by the anti apartheid resistance movement when it tried to make the country un bull back in the 1970s and 1980s. And the fact that unionists who are in, you know, important positions who are in, in many cases, members
00:13:43 - of language to talk about what lies ahead and the kind of resistance that they might try to conjure up if they're not heard and and listened to in this transition, I think speaks to a longer term challenge for South Africa as it looks to move and decarbonize, because it absolutely has to, but it's really gotta take on board the concerns of these communities. Otherwise, the political fallout and consequences of it could mean that actually those attempts to decarbonize in the first place could be at best stalled,
00:14:18 - which would undermine environmental justice as well as the social justice, which is at stake here as well.

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