Ramaphosa backs just transition — insists SA’s sovereignty not for sale in R131bn COP26 financing offer

President Cyril Ramaphosa was referring to Eskom, as South Africa’s sole national generator and transmitter of electricity, being a single point of failure — as is underscored by the frequent rolling power outages that disrupt economic activity and plunge households into chaos.

“We are all agreed Eskom is just too big to fail. It would be catastrophic… Eskom is our collective problem that we have to solve,” he said on the state-owned power utility’s R401-billion debt.

Renewable energy projects and allowing municipalities to generate power alongside independent producers — having raised to 100MW the licensing threshold for embedded power that may also be sold back to the grid — were all measures to reduce the risk of Eskom’s power generation and transmission monopoly, according to the president.

“The restructuring of Eskom will transform the sector and will enable greater competition and investment in new generation capacity.”

A more folksy illustration of the Eskom monopoly risk emerged elsewhere during the parliamentary question time when he spoke of concerns should something happen to “the one company” that’s responsible for all the lights to be seen when flying from Johannesburg or Cape Town.

But MPs seemed muted on Ramaphosa’s pitch on new sectors and new job opportunities that would come with the just transition from coal. This is triggered in no small way by the need to decommission coal power stations — Komati power station in Mpumalanga will be the first in 2022 — but also South Africa’s international commitments, including emissions reductions by 2030.

From discussions with the private sector showing “enormous possibilities” in electric car manufacturing, to “being a world leader” in green hydrogen, Ramaphosa repeatedly spoke of government’s commitment to “upskill, retrain and reskill” workers, while also supporting communities living around power stations and coal mines.

“As we move from one revolution to another, of course, jobs have been lost, but jobs have also been created. What we want to do is to maximise the creation of new jobs… There’s new money. There’s good money willing to come in because it creates new markets.”

Ramaphosa’s repeated emphasis that the just transition would ensure “no worker will be left behind” — much like his comment that even NGOs were looking at various proposals for Eskom — echo the labour federation Cosatu’s statement on Thursday following its Central Executive Committee meeting.

“It is critical that a just transition for mines and electricity power plants that have reached the end of their life span is put in place so that no workers are left behind,” said Cosatu, adding its intention “to constructively contribute to a process of finding a solution to the electricity crisis facing the country”.

Support for South Africa’s just transition was clinched at the Glasgow COP26 UN Climate Change Conference, when the US, United Kingdom, Germany, France and the European Union offered R131-billion ($8.5-billion) in grants and concessional loans over the next three to five years.

President Cyril Ramaphosa repeatedly emphasised the COP26 funding offer was not a done deal yet — and South Africa would ‘continue to chart our own developmental path’. (Photo: Gallo Images / Jeffrey Abrahams)