LETTER: Funds for just energy financing will be looted

Climate envoys from Europe must approach SA’s request for funding a “just energy financing facility” with extreme circumspection (“Climate envoys to hammer out finance facility for SA”, September 30).

SA is a developing country that cannot afford to “decarbonise” its economy, swiftly or at all. Thanks to the ANC government’s obsession with its entities, clearly to use as vehicles to employ its cadres (and loot), Eskom is destined to be a permanent feature of dysfunction and corruption and will never be decommissioned. If investment is indeed a priority, Eskom quite clearly needs to function efficiently.

As a developing country with an equivalent government, SA will also not be in a position to mitigate greenhouse gases. Much the same as money for the levy on old scrap tyres was abused and stolen, there can be no incentive for this country to fall in line with the rest of the world. It simply will not work. Fossil fuels will stay in Africa, and SA will be 15 years behind the rest of the world regarding a “just energy transition”.

Because the ANC has demonstrated consummate skill at looting and corruption in all fiscal spheres, it is irrefutable that the government will use the funds donated for “just energy financing” for its own purposes. In a similar manner as the R500bn borrowed to counter the fallout from Covid-19 vanished, so too will funds donated for climate finance disappear.

The need to shift away from fossil fuels is a civilised approach, but cannot be implemented with our current government at the helm. Indeed, I would caution the Europeans on trying to foist a climate agreement on any African countries.

It simply will not work and the funds will be misappropriated or used for other purposes. In a nutshell, do not listen to or trust the ANC government with the proposed concessional funding.

Nathan Cheiman
Northcliff

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