Those of us watching in awe as the ANC tries to mainstream its most brazen lie to date — that it isn’t responsible for the collapse of Eskom — thought it couldn’t get more extreme. And then Gwede Mantashe said “hold my beer” and produced a world-melting bit of chutzpah.
Speaking at an energy conference in Cape Town on Tuesday, Mantashe said it was time for African countries to reject calls from wealthy countries to move away from fossil fuels.
“Our continent collectively, and her individual countries, is made to bear the brunt for heavy polluters,” said Minister Burn Baby Burn, explaining that Africa was being “pressured, even compelled, to move away from all forms of fossil fuels” at the expense of economic growth.
In theory, it’s not a terrible argument. While reducing emissions is essential, the move towards greener energy sometimes looks an awful lot like rich countries pulling up the ladder and telling poor ones that they can’t have nice things. Reliable energy is essential for economic growth, and the most reliable sources tend to be made of dead dinosaurs, by which I mean coal and oil rather than Eskom.
If the energy minister of, say, Malawi had stood up and pointed out the hypocrisy of rich Europeans and Americans demanding that Malawians sacrifice their hopes of stability and prosperity, so that those Europeans and Americans can keep their own societies stable and prosperous, well, I’d be more sympathetic.
Despite burning all that coal and diesel, South Africans are getting used to not having electricity for seven hours a day. Mantashe is committing to a supremely outdated and unsustainable technology he and his colleagues can’t even use properly.
But Gwede Mantashe is not the energy minister of Malawi. Instead, he is the energy minister of the country that pours out 30% of Africa’s emissions and which is one of the top 20 worst polluters in the world by sheer weight of CO2 being pumped into the sky. Our footprint looks slightly better when you calculate it per capita, but even then we still come in way above the global average.
In short, we’re a dirty, dirty little country, punching well above our weight when it comes to choking the planet to death, and Mantashe is being supremely disingenuous for trying to claim that we and infinitely less polluting and dramatically poorer countries are in the same boat.
But that’s not the really crazy part.
No, for me, what’s really bonkers is that Mantashe was implying that he had all the answers on the very same day that SA was enduring stage 4 load-shedding.
Again, if Mantashe were not Mantashe, it might have been less absurd. If he were the energy minister of, say, Saudi Arabia — the world’s worst polluter per capita — it would make sense for him to be willing to cook the planet in return for keeping a huge, lucrative and generally well-oiled machine running.
But Mantashe can’t even point to a well-run and growing economy to justify his ecologically nihilistic position. Despite burning all that coal and diesel, South Africans are getting used to not having electricity for seven hours a day. Mantashe is committing to a supremely outdated and unsustainable technology he and his colleagues can’t even use properly.
For heaven’s sake, Mr Mantashe: if you’re going to demand that everyone insulates their houses with asbestos, at the very least show us you know how to build a crappy, cancer-causing house, instead of shilling for Big Asbestos even as you squat disconsolately inside a mouldy tent out in the back yard.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.