Cape Town - During his keynote address at the African Energy Indaba in Cape Town this morning, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe was interrupted by a group of Greenpeace Africa activists.
The activists overshadowed Mantashe’s speech with protest action against the minister’s support for the coal industry, and other fossil fuels, as well as his previous resistance to fast-track adding new renewable energy to the grid in South Africa, and the unprecedented levels of daily load shedding.
When the activists came to the front, Mantashe paused and said they should have their say, but reiterated that coal would remain a key component of Africa’s energy mix long into the future.
Security came to remove the protesters but Mantashe allowed them to remain for the duration of his address and have their say.
Greenpeace Africa's Climate and Energy Campaigner, Thandile Chinyavanhu said: “Fast tracking a shift to renewable energy is clearly the solution, but the biggest blocker in the way of getting us out of the oppressive darkness of the electricity crisis is standing at the podium today.
“Minister Mantashe is too biased to see the real solutions, and his fossil fuel obsession is literally bringing South Africa to its knees and cannot remain unchallenged. Enough is enough."
Greenpeace Africa believed the minister was ultimately to blame for load shedding for blocking new renewable energy projects.
“Minister Mantashe together with the fossil fuel industry are colluding to force South Africans down a devastating and depressing pathway to spiralling rolling blackouts, a jobless economy, catastrophic climate change, and continued toxic air pollution,” Chinyavanhu said.
Mantashe has made public comments declaring that the fossil fuel industry was under attack by renewable energy lobbyists and environmentalists.
During his address, under the Indaba’s theme of “African Energy Transitioning to a Sustainable and Prosperous Future”, the minister mistakenly referred to the AEI as the African Mining Indaba, which took place in Cape Town a few weeks ago.
“Forgive me, I’m a coal miner,” Mantashe said.
“Africa is endowed with resources such as coal, oil and gas which are needed for base-load energy to power our industrialisation.
“Our continent deserves the opportunity to develop its own oil and gas infrastructure storage, refinery, and distribution to cushion its people against the turbulence of global markets and thereby secure its continental energy needs,” Mantashe said.
Addressing the protesters and the participants of the conference, Mantashe said focus should not be on turning away from coal because solving the energy crisis required improving the Energy Availability Factor of power stations, accelerating emergency energy generation and building new skills.
kristin.engel@inl.co.za