LETTER: SA needs its coal economy

Pravin Gordhan is wise to express distrust in developed economies pushing SA into their so-called just energy transition away from coal. He refers to their breaking of vaccine promises.

They falsely claim SA is among the world’s worst polluters. How can we be, given the mass deindustrialisation of our economy, along with the fact that we produce a fraction of the electricity of a bygone time, and have such a small population?

Asian economies are continuing to build new coal-fired power stations. SA should allow privately owned coal power stations to compete with Eskom. We need to allow the coal economy to grow and create jobs.

New pollution reduction technology can be applied, as China has done. There is no reason to stop coal power when it is so abundant here.

My fear is that foreign governments are pushing this transition while refusing to reciprocate. There will come a time  when SA has no coal power stations and coal is exported instead to a tiny cartel of coal power producers, who will dictate the price we receive because those countries gullible enough to transition are no longer buying coal.

These countries will then be able to buy coal so cheaply that green energy will be expensive in comparison. Some of them will then be in a position to drive up the price of the solar equipment they export to make green energy comparatively expensive.

We will become desperate exporters of cheap coal. SA should insist on being the last to transition. Anything else will be unjust to our future of competitively priced energy.

Hitesh Naran
Johannesburg

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