By Bishop Geoff Davies 

 3rd August 2012 

A SAFCEI delegation had the opportunity of meeting with the Minister of Energy, Dipuo Peters, to seek to  communicate the potential of renewable energy (RE) and the disadvantages and dangers of nuclear and shale gas from hydraulic fracturing – “fracking”.  This took place straight after the Minister had addressed the launch of South African National Energy Development Institute (SANEDI) on 19th July in Johannesburg.

We were most graciously received.  The Minister gave us more than two hours of her time, together with three senior Deputy Director Generals  (DDGs)and other members of her staff.  We are most grateful for the opportunity. The SAFCEI delegation consisted of Bishop Geoff Davies (SAFCEI), Father Mike Deeb (Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference), Ms Tahirih Matthee (SAFCEI Chairperson and member of the Bahai Faith), Moulana Riaz Simjee (SAFCEI Deputy Chair and member of the Muslim Faith), Dr David Fig (energy and political economics researcher and writer), The Revd Gift Moerane (SACC), and  Ms Makoma Lekalakala (Earthlife Africa and member of Church of Christ, Soweto).

It is difficult to say if the Minister and her DDGs heard us. When meeting with busy parliamentarians, it is not easy to enter into a real dialogue.  We raised the subject of our concerns, to which the Minister responded with great detail and knowledge, but there was little opportunity to enter into a deeper dialogue.  However, we greatly appreciated Minister Peter’s expressed willingness to meet with us again.

We were assured that the government is supporting renewable energy and is aware of its advantages.  We believe they are not showing this in our national budgets.  The government is prepared to invest R300 billion in nuclear (probably double that looking at other nuclear plant construction) but R5 billion on renewable energy.

The government wants to implement a diverse energy supply and is convinced that there are no dangers inherent in nuclear energy, so a campaign is to be launched by the Deputy President to overcome the public’s “emotional” fear of nuclear energy.

We were not able to communicate all our concerns, as expressed in the two letters to President Zuma and presented to her from the KZN Inter-religious Council and the Western Cape Religious Leaders Forum. (Please see links for these two letters).  

When it came to fracking, we were encouraged when the Minister said that she had clearly stated that we should only proceed with fracking if it presented no danger to the environment.  It is clear to us that to date there is no way to extract shale gas without extreme damage to the environment.  It is also clearly not understood that we humans have got to stop burning fossil fuels – coal, oil, gas – if we want to prevent further destruction to the climate and planet.

There is a fundamental divergence of views as the government is directed by the interests of intensive energy users and extractive industries, and the need to ensure security of energy to attract investment from mining groups such as Anglo American.  SAFCEI’s concern is that we put the well-being of people and planet at the centre of our activities and investments, so that households and communities have affordable electricity without damaging the health of the planet.

We believe that a critical issue facing our world today is that large scale capital investment in machines and smelters does not create jobs.  High levels of mechanisation does people out of jobs!  South Africa needs a labour intensive, low carbon economy if we are to overcome the challenges of climate change and unemployment, poverty and inequality.  Fossil fuel and nuclear energy lead to massive inequality.  Those with wealth and power benefit enormously, while the majority are left as the consumers. 

We believe our top priority is to care for God’s creation.  When we do the right thing, all else falls into place.

Renewable energy will put decentralised power into the hands of the people.  If we roll out decentralised renewable energy to the millions of homes without electricity, our coal powered stations can continue to supply the mines and industry for the next 25 years, by which time there will have been huge further advances in renewable energy.  Does South Africa want to be locked in to infrastructure development, at great cost, which we will regret in 20 years’ time?

Our hope is that we may follow up the suggestion that Department of Energy officials will meet with us and energy research centres from our universities.  These centres have assured us that energy security is possible following the renewable energy route.  We would then hope that we can then follow up on the Minister’s willingness to meet with us again.  She is a deeply committed person of faith and said she appreciates the opportunity of meeting with faith communities.