 Ahead of the COP27 conference in Egypt, South Africa announced the launch of its Just Energy Transition Investment Plan, which is meant to help the country move away from coal and focus on renewable energy. The US$8.5 billion deal is supported by countries such as the United States, Germany, France, the UK and the EU. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has been widely hailed for this plan. However, within South Africa, many have raised concerns. A prominent voice has been the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa, or NUMSA, the country's largest union. What are the issues that NUMSA has raised? What are the aspects of the plan that affects South Africa's workers in poor? Bhagamele Khlubi Majola, National Spokesperson for NUMSA, talks to People's Dispatch. The climate change deal which the world over is patting the South African President on the back for is really a sellout deal. That's how we view it as NUMSA. We believe that President Ramaphosa, together with the ANC government, has betrayed the working class with this deal. The $8.5 billion funding which Ramaphosa is busy celebrating and is essentially made up of loans. 97% of that funding, according to Business Insider, is loans. And for us, this is already a clear sign of how the principles of a just transition have been violated. Because as NUMSA, whilst we've always supported renewable energy and the fact that we must transition from a dependence on coal to renewable energy, when you hand over the process of a just transition to the private sector for them to implement, you have already failed. And in our view, this is exactly what the South African government has done. South Africa's renewable energy policy is entirely dependent on privately owned renewable energy companies. And ESCOM, which is the sole provider of electricity for the country, has absolutely no role to play in rolling out renewable energy. And for us, this is another example of how workers and their families are being sold out for the benefit of banks and privately funded financial institutions. Because if ESCOM was actually going to play a meaningful role in renewable energy, then ESCOM and of course workers would be beneficiaries of this process. ESCOM on its own employs approximately 30,000 employees. And by taking ESCOM out of playing a significant role in renewable energy, the South African government is basically not future proofing it. They're basically killing ESCOM because it means that whilst the world moves into this space of renewable energy and starts to advance with this new technology, ESCOM will be left out. And that for us is one of the fundamental failings of this policy. Plus the fact that the South African government has not actually come up with any clear social plan for how communities, workers in the province of Mbuma Langa will be taken care of once this transition is rolled out. The South African government has made commitments to shut down coal-fired power stations. Mbuma Langa has 12 out of 15 of those coal-fired power stations. And our own research institute, the CSIR, has predicted a minimum of 100,000 jobs that will be lost in the province of Mbuma Langa as a result of the closure of these power stations. And this is why we're saying they have completely betrayed the working class because there's absolutely no plan to assist these workers in Mbuma Langa to transition, to be upskilled, for example. No plan to develop new sectors or new industries in that province to absorb those jobs. If you look at how this funding will be spent, only 1% has been allocated for skills development. Less than 1% has been allocated to cushion workers and their families for this transition. And this is why we're saying that we have been betrayed. The South African government is thinking only of the wealthy, connected political elite. And workers and their families are going to find themselves paying dire, dire consequences for this process. At least 100,000 jobs lost with no plan to create new ones. In a country like ours, which has 46% unemployment, that is really a disaster waiting to happen. A key question before countries of the global South is the modalities of a just transition. How do countries such as South Africa shift from polluting sources of energy in a way that ensures that the developmental needs of the people are met? What kind of provisions need to be made in transition plans to ensure that they are equitable? For us, what a just transition looks like. First of all, it has an ownership component. We would have liked a situation where a plan that would have allowed workers and communities to actually have ownership in some of these renewable energy companies that are going to be cropping up as a result of this process. There's no ownership factor at all. And what that tells us is that this technology, which as you know, is mostly foreign owned, will remain in the hands of foreigners whilst they simply extract whatever wealth in terms of whether it's human resources or in terms of customer base that they will be making money off from. But as South Africa, we are not going to benefit from that, certainly not in terms of ownership and in terms of sharing the knowledge in terms of the technology, that's not a factor. And that for us is crucial if we're serious about rolling out a just transition to renewable energy. Secondly, the fact that as I said, there's no social plan for these workers who are going to be displaced by the onset of renewable energy companies and the closure of power stations is already a deep problem for us. The international labour organization is very, very explicit that the just transition process must not disadvantage future generations. Now, if you consider the fact that we've signed ourselves up for a very costly loan of more than $8.5 billion plus the fact that more than 100,000 families are going to be displaced through job losses, that is already a clear violation of the principles of a just transition. South Africa is a country which has the highest levels of inequality in the world, it has 46% unemployment. And if this plan does not speak to creating jobs, safeguarding the future of the mass and safeguarding the future of the masses, it has already failed. The ILO is very, very clear about this, that green jobs should create more opportunities and should grow the economy. And we're not seeing that happening when you look at this, when you analyze the steel. And I think for us, one of the things that also is very worrying is the fact that they, you know, we've been raising this issue as we've done so now since 2018. And every time we raise this issue, we are attacked by the left or those who call themselves the left by environmentalists because they say that we are not supporting measures to deal with climate change. And I think it's very important that those who are operating in the space who are driving solutions for climate change and if they claim to be progressive, they should actually take the time to listen to what trade unions and workers on the ground are saying. You cannot solve the crisis of climate change with a new, by deepening the crisis of unemployment and poverty. That is not a just transition. And the ILO is very clear that this process should be a process that is worker focused, that it must have, it must be human centric. In other words, workers themselves must drive the process. They must define the timelines and it should be to their benefit. Everything about the consultation regarding just transition has been a tick box ticking exercise by the South African government to create the illusion of consultation when they've already started implementing the plan. And this for us is why we say they are perverting the term just transition because the result of this process is there will be more poverty. There will be more suffering. There will be more inequality and unemployment. And we will regret the day we signed up for this deal because we have not done the simple work of preparing the path so that the masses are actually prepared for what this is going to mean for them. We've not put in any or devised any plans. What Ramaphosa has been doing is this is a PR exercise. And of course, we can see that the Western media is clapping hands for him and the banks are clapping hands for him. And that already should make you worry when you're a member of the working class because you know that this project will not benefit us as the masses, as the poor, as workers. This is purely a machinery to empower those who are already rich. And if I might just add, in the last round where the South African government was allocating bids for renewable energy, there were 25 bids which were rolled out. 12 of those 25 bids were handed to Ramaphosa's brother-in-law, Mr. Patrice Muzzebe, who is a big player in renewables. And this is why we have to ask deep questions about who is really benefiting. Clearly, it's not the masses. And what's going to happen from this process is that those who are connected to the president through family ties or who are connected to the leadership of the ANC will definitely make money from this process. But once again, it will be workers and their families who will pay the highest price as a result of these changes. Why NUMSA is deeply concerned about this process and why we say that workers are getting screwed is that the EU, the US and China have emitted 53% of the world's carbon dioxide since 1959. They are the greatest polluters. They are the ones who are responsible for the climate change crisis that we now face today. In contrast, Africa and South America have emitted just 3% of the CO2 in the atmosphere in the same period of time. And the question is, why must South Africa rush to implement this process when we are not even the ones who are guilty of contributing to climate change in the first place? Western Europe and America developed off coal. South Africa has an abundance of coal. Now, we are being denied the opportunity to develop our industries, to build our economies in the name of defending the climate. That's fine. We can do that. But why don't we see the rest of Western Europe rushing to implement these changes? Germany, as I speak to you now, is in the process of reopening 20 moth-bold coal-powered fire stations. And South Africa is shutting them down. Surely that does not make sense. We are a developing country. We are not in any way close to being at the level of Europe in terms of development. And yet we are denying ourselves the opportunity to industrialise to the same level that they are in the name of climate change. And whilst we, again, I have to repeat this because we keep being attacked of not supporting climate change. We do. And we do support the changes that must take place in order to mitigate against that. But as NUMSA, we will never support a programme that worsens conditions of ordinary workers and their families so that capitalists can make more money at our expense. And this is precisely what this climate change deal is.