ANC must find balance between carbon emissions and unemployment crisis: Masondo

ANC national chairperson hopeful David Masondo believes the governing party must balance between its need to protect jobs and create new ones and the “two percent problem it creates for the world” in the form of carbon emissions.

Countries such as UK, EU, US, France and Germany have pledged billions to help South Africa move away from coal in global efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

Masondo said it cannot be done without prioritising South Africa’s own problems, the apex being its high unemployment rate, which is the worst in the world. In his view, it is the responsibility to ensure moving away from coal is done in a “very strategic” way.

“We have got to transition in a manner that is just and takes into account the jobs that you still need to protect because we have 40% unemployment and our contribution to the world emissions is 2%,” Masondo told TimesLIVE.

“So you have got to say you want to deal with the 2% [carbon emission] problem that you create for the world, or you deal with the 40% of your own problem that is the unemployment you have in South Africa.

“The manner in which you move away from the coal has got to be very strategic. There is talk about finding technology that reduces a lot of carbon emission out of coal. That is the main problem the ANC has to face. How do you have a different growth path that creates a lot of jobs but cannot have that growth if your network industries [such as energy generation] are not working?”

Masondo said among other solutions for the country to reduce unemployment would be large-scale industrialisation which demands stable power supply.

The transitioning from fossil fuels to clean energy is a political hot button in the country. 

Former ANC president Jacob Zuma, in his address at the weekend, slammed the current administration’s approach, saying the advice by first-world countries to abandon coal-fired power stations was bad for SA.

“Our coal-powered power stations are being neglected and being set up for collapse, while all our coal gets shipped to the very same countries giving us loans to close our power stations, while they use our coal to generate electricity for themselves,” said Zuma.

TimesLIVE