Activists chained to Eskom building
Greenpeace activists have chained themselves to the entrance of Megawatt Park, Eskom’s headquarters in Johannesburg.
FROM OUR ARCHIVES: Members of Greenpeace dump five tons of coal at the entrance to Eskom's head office Megawatt Park, blocking employees from entering in protest over Eskom 's continuous use of coal fired power stations. Pic: Halden Krog. 27/06/2011.“Eskom is under new management,” the protesters announced in a banner dropped by a team of climbers, said Greenpeace spokeswoman Fiona Musana.
The banner carried the logos of Greenpeace, groundWork and Earthlife Africa — organisations which campaign for environmental protection, clean air and renewable energy.
The action was taken “to confront Eskom over bad choices and demand new management”, said Musana.
“We are having a brief conversation with Eskom management,” she said.
Greenpeace said Bobby Peek, the director of clean air activist group groundWork, was its “new Eskom CEO”; that Makoma Lekalakala from Earthlife Africa, Johannesburg, was its “new Eskom stakeholder engagement director”; and that Greenpeace activist Melita Steele was its “new Eskom spokesperson”.
The “new management” chained themselves to a table outside the building.
Lekalakala said the action had been prompted, in part, by Eskom’s decision to seek an increase in electricity tariffs, announced on Monday.
Another factor had been a perceived lack of interest in renewable energy.
“There has been an outcry from the public for Eskom to massively invest in renewable energy. They have ignored this, and continued in their addiction to coal,” she said.
Greenpeace and the other organisations promised to listen to the people and phase out coal generation in favour of renewable energy. Eskom should include them as part of the management team, said Lekalakala.
“We are also making a statement by occupying this space. Eskom belongs to the people, it doesn’t belong to corporates.”
Peek said the health of communities was affected by toxic by products from coal, and as a result suffered from chronic respiratory diseases.
Steele condemned Eskom’s water usage as a result of its reliance on coal.
“There are effective alternatives to coal, but there is no substitute for water,” she said.
Eskom used 10,000 litres of water a second, according to Greenpeace.
“We don’t have any objection to peaceful protest,” said Eskom spokeswoman Hilary Joffe.
“We do engage with NGOs [non-governmental organisations] and I think we all have the same objectives as a country. We want to secure the supply of electricity, give access to energy for all, and cleaner electricity. The debate is about how we get there.”
On Monday, Eskom put forward an application for a 16 percent tariff hike a year for the next five years.
Of this increase, 3% would go towards the cost of renewable energy produced by independent companies.
Eskom’s average generation cost over this period was only 30 cents per kilowatt hour, compared to around R2 per kWh for renewable energy.
“The point to be made is that the cost of energy from independent power producers is up to 10 times Eskom’s current cost of generation,” she said.
As a result, South Africans needed to ask how quickly renewable energy could, and should, be brought into the energy mix, she added.
.
Most Popular
-
No Viewed Articles yet
Comments
Papage
So the abnormal climate is SA is mainly due to Eskom and Sasol? who else is a culprit?Report Abuse
Bizzabo
and they dont use electricity in their houses?Report Abuse
-Cl!ck-
I blame Orania, Biltong, Transvaal, Khakhi shorts, Sakie-sakie, Bakkies, the phrase "Wie is jou pa?", Ou-Baas, Victor Matfield, NP, Paul Kruger, Jack Parrow, Egoli "plek van goud".. etcReport Abuse
Bizzabo
-Cl!ck-you left out Steve Hofmeyer, noit vir noit, Naas Botha rustelose jaare etc
Report Abuse
RobinHH
Papage and Bizzabo: It seems that you guys are missing the point. One has to start somewhere. ESKOM is busy taking us, the people of this country, to the cleaners. Their notion of "engagement" seems not to include actually heeding the calls of the populace or environmentalists. They blandly f o k voort the way they please, awarding their top management absurd bonuses, regardless of the state of the economy or the damage they do to the environment.Report Abuse
Ma-Bhova
@RobinHH,"the damage they do to the environment. "
When you pee on the side of the road and driving (if u got wheels) around, do u think of the environment you are damaging? susjwayela masipa.
Report Abuse
-Cl!ck-
@ BizzaboSo true.. One word comes to mind after all of this.. Aparthied!!!
Report Abuse
Msiphos00
Are these greenpeace activists also vegetarians............We need motlakasi nina so back off let eskom build maybe in future our electricity bills will be lesser
Report Abuse
RobinHH
Ma-Bhova: You too miss the point. One cannot exist in a manner which does NO damage to the environment. One needs to be sensible and sensitive in one's approach to it. I actualy don't see the point of your rather trite remark, but for the record, urine has nutrients that contribute to a number of factors, so no harm there, and though I now possess a car, for the 1st time in 11 years, I use it extremely rarely. And you?Report Abuse
Bizzabo
RobinHHRobin I happen to be in mining.... you are looking at about 60 000 people formally employed in the coal industry( mining coal) now that is a huge dent on employment. what we just need to do is sustainable development and responsible mining. not sure how many people are employed by Eskom generation, distribution and enterprise, it must be in the thousands.
Now tell me what is important? imagine the loss of income tax for our corrupt Gov and employment
Report Abuse
Read all 80 comments