ANC of South Africa treads carefully politically when it comes to closing coal plants

Poppy Vilakazi, a campaign worker for the African National Congress (ANC), which is in power in a ward that the party easily won in local elections three years ago, has recently seen some rather cold responses.

Speaking to Reuters in Komati, a village under the shadow of a closed power plant in Mpumalanga province—an ANC stronghold in the nation’s coal belt—she stated, “Mostly they are angry.”

“They feel the ANC let them down by allowing this power station to close.”

The main concerns in an election scheduled for May 29 that pollsters believe might see the ANC lose its 30-year parliamentary majority are South Africa’s aging electricity sector and the financial impact from state company Eskom’s struggle to keep the lights on.

However, the issue is dividing President Cyril Ramaphosa’s party as he tries to strike a compromise between the need to increase energy output and declining financing for coal, which provides 80% of the nation’s power, and international demands that South Africa decarbonize.

That is never more apparent than in Komati, where a local and national backlash has resulted from the conversion of a 1,000 megawatt coal power plant that is 60 years old.

At Komati, Eskom is setting up 370 megawatts of solar, wind, and battery storage. Its goal is to start new jobs and training programs in the renewable energy industry and serve as a model for the shutdown of coal-fired power plants in the future.

However, locals like Dumisani Mpungose, who was fired from his plant maintenance position, claim that thus far, all they have witnessed is more unemployment, poverty, and criminal activity.

“Komati was a place of happiness, of life,” stated 37-year-old Mpungose, whose wife brought their daughter back to her parents’ house following his job loss. “I haven’t seen them in the past two years. It had been two years since I last worked.”

Ministers close to Ramaphosa have increased their criticism.

Gwede Mantashe, the minister of mineral resources and energy, called Komati’s closure a catastrophe. Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, the minister of electricity, called it an error and was successful in persuading the cabinet to postpone further closures.

“It will convey a really poor message if your pilot isn’t successful. Chris Yelland, an energy expert who thinks South Africa has to switch to renewable energy but is concerned Komati could undermine that change, said, “It means you’ve failed.”

Main competitors of the ANC are putting up their own alternatives; if it loses its majority, these rivals might also become coalition partners.

The center-right Democratic Alliance wants to liberalize the industry and end Eskom’s monopoly, while the left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters want to cease decommissioning coal facilities and build more nuclear capacity.

Years of neglect, malfeasance, and incompetence bedeviled Eskom. Blackouts occurring almost every day have slowed economic progress and raised the unemployment rate to among the highest in the world.

Eskom is straining the limits of its aging fleet. However, that’s undercutting the pledges made by South Africa, the 14th-largest carbon emitter in the world from energy production, in accordance with the Paris Climate Agreement.

Not just South Africa’s international allies are in doubt. This month, the Johannesburg-based Ichikowitz Family Foundation, which supports youth empowerment initiatives and animal conservation, conducted a youth study in which it found that 63% of South Africans were “very concerned” about climate change—a 26-point increase in only two years.

But financing a move away from coal would come with a price tag of up to $46 billion.
The government can’t afford such a large bill; instead, it is looking to the United States and wealthy European nations, who have committed an initial $8.5 billion in funding, primarily in the form of loans.

South Africa pledged to reduce emissions from 442 million metric tons this decade to 350–420 million metric tons yearly by 2030.

Managing director of Komati Thevan Pillay told Reuters, “We will prove that this can work.” “We’ll apply that to the remaining fleet members. And it will alter people’s perspectives.”

Locals in Mpumalanga, which generates most of South Africa’s electricity and is the center of a coal sector that employs over 90,000 people, are skeptical.

“What are we going to eat if all the coal mines are closed, and all the power stations are closed?” stated Anna-Marth Ott, the director of the chamber of business in Middelburg, a major commercial center in Mpumalanga.

“How are we going to sustain the economy?”

Mpumalanga, home to thousands of unionized miners and Eskom employees, is a stronghold of organized labor and the foundation of ANC support. Important financial benefactors of the ANC are black coal industrialists.

Both parties are not content.

There’s little question that the ANC will win Mpumalanga in the elections, despite internal division.

However, many others, including Dumisani Mpungose, believe there is no use in supporting a party that has misled them in an election where they believe they need every vote they can get.

He remarked, “This seems like a sell-out,” regarding the shutdown of the Komati facility.

$1 is equivalent to 18.3814 rand.