South Africa’s government is stuck on oil and gas

The energy minister continues to sing the same old song. More concerning is the petroleum agency’s authoritarian stance despite the environmental issues being interrogated in court.

Mantashe should rather cease punting fossil fuels

South Africa’s energy minister has been exhorting African states to develop their oil and gas reserves while ignoring the historical realities, and future impacts, of doing so.

Retrofitting Koeberg power station is more likely to provoke a catastrophe than preserve energy — the plant should be closed

Concerns have been expressed about staff turnover at the ageing facility. Instead of extending its lifespan, renewable energy should replace it.

Can Ramaphosa deal with the sector that ‘made’ him?

Many of SA’s environmental and economic problems stem from dependence on the minerals-energy complex. The president, being a beneficiary of this system, might not care to effect change.

Part two | Zondo’s nuclear deal revelations

In the second of this two-part series, evidence before the state capture inquiry makes it clear that South Africans will shoulder the real cost of adding nuclear generation to the energy mix.

Part one | Zondo’s nuclear deal revelations

In the first of this two-part series, evidence before the state capture inquiry shows how the multibillion-rand deal went ahead despite warnings about the exorbitant cost and danger to health.

Part four | The slow violence of SA’s nuclear waste

The final part of this four-part story outlines the futility of storing waste with radioactive time frames, arguing that nuclear energy should be abandoned in favour of renewables.

Part three | The slow violence of SA’s nuclear waste

This third installment of a four-part story looks at the dangers of keeping high-level waste at nuclear facilities as well as the risks involved in making temporary solutions permanent.

Part two | The slow violence of SA’s nuclear waste

This second of a four-part story details the shambles at the National Radioactive Waste Disposal Institute, which is yet to begin work on its mandate, despite spending millions.

Part one | The slow violence of SA’s nuclear waste

Part one of this four-part story considers the imminent danger involved in storing used radioactive materials, a dilemma growing at a rate of more than 32 tonnes a year.

Part three | Nuclear energy in Africa

The last in this three-part series looks at the cost of nuclear waste disposal, decommissioning power plants and accident clean-ups, and suggests a logical energy-generation alternative for the continent.

Part two | Nuclear energy in Africa

The second in this three-part series looks at how power purchase agreements raise the cost of electricity for consumers and act as major sources of inflationary pressure in economies.

Part one | Nuclear energy in Africa

The first in this three-part series looks at the cost of nuclear power and how vendors minimise their financial risk by maximising profits through power purchase agreements with governments.

Protected areas need not pit humans against nature

The ever-increasing capitalist onslaught on protected environments will be stopped only if we fundamentally change the way we conceptualise their value and purpose.

Insanitary tradition of fouling Cape Town’s seas

A look at the history of sewage outfalls in the bays around the city shows that residents have been complaining since the first one was completed in 1905. And as now, their concerns were ignored.

Budget reallocation puts the lie to ANC’s pro-poor claims

The government’s recent budget cuts have shown that it prioritises the punted nuclear build over connecting thousands of residents in impoverished communities to the electricity grid.

Mineral council denies mines are Covid-19 hotspots

Despite evidence that communities around mines are infection epicentres, the Mineral Council of South Africa is scrambling to ‘shape the message’ by fudging the numbers.

Mining communities bear the burden of disease

Despite a court order, residents near mines were ignored when Covid-19 guidelines were drawn up. Now the virus devastates the very people made vulnerable by their operations.

Freedom of expression at stake in judgment over mining company’s Slapp suit

Mineral Sands Resources pursues defamation cases seemingly to intimidate individuals into silence

Miners’ lives are cheap compared with rising metal prices

Before Covid-19 the mortality rate among former miners in SA was 20% higher than in the general population

What does it mean to ‘forge a new economy’?

We all need to participate in imagining how we mesh together, not just the economists

Big talk but little action on illicit financial flows

The political problem of illicit financial flows

Protecting our common resources

The limits of private ownership of ‘The Commons’

SA must act urgently to exit group of climate-change pariahs

Climate Change and Democracy

At one level, whites are indeed responsible for cyclone Idai

Who is responsible for Climate Change?

Eco-Anxiety and Hope – what to do instead of waiting for extinction

Are we doomed or is there hope?

St Lucia, Xolobeni and the problem of wilderness

The Xolobeni struggle and ideas of ‘Wilderness’

Education and health needs should trump coal in the budget

How to better spend the R20 billion being wasted on new coal

Mantashe needs to ask what kind of development Xolobeni wants

Xolobeni and ‘development’ – who gets to choose?

Pursuit of coal-fired stations raises the same questions as nuclear deal

Who stands to gain from new coal in South Africa?

Mining Charter unclear on benefits for mining-affected communities

The Mining Charter and Mining Communities

The lowest carbon emitter? No, it’s not, Mr Energy Minister

Is nuclear power the lowest carbon emitter?

Important questions of safety the pro-nuclear lobby dare not ignore

Is nuclear power safe?

Going green a drop in the ocean of change needed to fix climate crisis

This piece explores the problems with green consumerism

How SA’s nuclear plant build could fuel corruption

Megaprojects and corruption

Tegeta scandal report gives whiff of global rot in nuclear industry

A piece about how corruption and nuclear power plant construction go hand-in-hand

Pro-nuclear lobby still fired up on deal despite court’s refusal

Rosatom and nuclear power in South Africa

Why cutting meat from your diet could be a revolutionary act

Could cutting meat from your diet be revolutionary?

Job Growth promises are in Green Economy

Will nuclear power provide the new jobs that its proponets claim?

Eskom Seems Compromised in Nuclear Deal

Has the Eskom Board been captured?

Eskom Lacks Nuclear Wherewithal

Can Eskom really finance the nuclear procurement off its own balance sheet?

Where Will SA Put Lethal Nuclear Waste?

This piece explores the problem of nuclear waste in South Africa

The Nuclear Slippery Slope

An opinion piece that examines the financial costs of nuclear power

Keeping the Public in the Dark

An opinion piece about how secrecy and nuclear power go hand in hand