The JUST SA project seeks to aid skills development and new career pathways for the youth in Mpumalanga, among other initiatives to support a just transition.

• A five-year project backed by the German government seeks to aid a just transition in the Mpumalanga province over the next five years.
• Germany will contribute roughly R300 million in technical assistance to develop skills among the youth and other green industries in the region.
• The project is a collaboration with the South African government, the Mpumalanga Green Cluster Agency and other organisations.
• For climate change news and analysis, go to News24 Climate Future.

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A new five-year project has been launched to support the just transition in Mpumalanga, where jobs and livelihoods are heavily reliant on coal-value chains.

JUST SA, as it has been dubbed, is a collaboration by the German government and its agencies GIZ, the International Climate Initiative and the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment. Other domestic organisations which are involved include the Mpumalanga Green Cluster Agency, GreenCape, Trade & Industrial Policy Strategies (TIPS), the National Business Initiative, Yes4Youth and the World Wide Fund for nature.

Speaking at the launch, JUST SA project director Navina Sanchez said the project is important given its structure as a consortium which includes strong local partners and international expertise. 

Sanchez said the project is funded through International Climate Initiative by the German Federal Industry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action.

The €15 million, or roughly R290 million, that will be contributed over five years is part of the country’s commitment to the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP). “The composition of the funding is 100% technical assistance by the German government,” the JUST SA team said in an emailed response to questions.

The JETP was initiated on the sidelines of COP26 along with the UK, France, US and the EU. The countries pledged an initial $8.5 billion to aid South Africa’s shift away from coal in the interests of meeting climate commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

South Africa, however, will need R1.5 trillion over the next five years to support initiatives like the decarbonisation of the energy sector (which is dominated by coal-fired power stations), the development of the energy vehicles industry and green hydrogen.

The JUST SA project complements the work of the Presidential Climate Commission, which developed the Just Transition Framework for the country last year.

Role model

It seeks to provide local support in Mpumalanga and its local communities. While there is a strong focus on the Mpumalanga region, the aim is that the just transition in the province would be a “role model” for transitions in other regions in South Africa and other countries, the JUST SA team said.

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Some interventions have been identified by the JUST SA project. This includes working in close partnership with the Mpumalanga Green Cluster Agency on the development and implementation of green industrial initiatives. This also involves improving investment conditions in Mpumalanga.

JUST SA will also work to strengthen Mpumalanga’s municipalities to develop career pathways for youth and support their skills development. “The measure includes green economy technical training in collaboration with existing training centres to benefit marginalised groups (such as the youth and women),” the team said.

Nathi Konyane, acting CEO of the Mpumalanga Green Cluster Agency, a not-for-profit organisation established to unlock economic development challenges in the province and raise investment, said that there are challenges.

‘Sitting on a time bomb’

Among these is that when Eskom decommissions its coal-fired power stations as they reach their end of life (as much as 22 000MW will go offline by 2035), it will leave many people jobless. This will add to the youth unemployment burden the province is already facing.

“We are sitting on a time bomb … because most youth are unemployed. The situation is untenable. Something needs to happen, and it must happen very, very quickly,” said Konyane. One of the ways this can be addressed would be to improve economic growth, which is not fast enough to create jobs, Konyane said. However, he is hopeful that there are opportunities to spur growth through the green industry, which is what the agency wants to catalyse.

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Forestry, Fisheries and Environment Minister Barbara Creecy also addressed the launch and noted that JUST SA is “an exciting” project that will help identify transition pathways in Mpumalanga. “In Mpumalanga, there are hundreds of thousands of jobs that are created in the coal value chain and its associated industries,” said Creecy.

If South Africa is to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, then it is important to understand the “nitty gritty” of the transition, she said.

“Climate justice means that those who are part of the sectors that need to transition have to be part of the conversation and the planning from the beginning,” said Creecy.

“The same affected workers and communities have to be beneficiaries of the transition,” Creecy added. The minister noted that the shift to renewables would boost jobs in the Northern Cape, but this should not leave behind workers in Mpumalanga, with jobs in the coal value chain.

“The transition has to help us with our overall socioeconomic and development challenges. There has got to be a better quality of life in general for people in Mpumalanga,” said Creecy.

The approach to working through a consortium is to ensure that multiple issues can be addressed simultaneously. The project will be coordinated by GIZ, and the implementation progress will be reported twice a year to the International Climate Initiative.