Thoughts on the Greenpeace action at Eskom

Recently Greenpeace Africa took action at Eskom’s Megawatt Park, dumping five tonnes of coal at one entrance to the power utility’s headquarters. The act was a protest against the way Eskom produces South Africa’s electricity, 90% of which comes from climate-changing coal. As the twelth largest CO2 emitter in the world, located at the foot of the continent on the front lines of climate change, South Africa has a moral responsibility to take action on climate change. Building two of the largest coal-fired plants in the world is not the way to do that.

Following the Greenpeace action, I have been intrigued by some of the responses on social media. Although by far the majority have been very supportive, there are some who see the protest as irresponsible or extreme — one person on Twitter even referred to the action as “Osama tactics”!

We all know the saying “one man’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter”, and as enlightening as it is in terms of individual perceptions on a given issue, I think using it in this case is far too simplistic an analysis. For starters there was no violence, no threat to anyone, and there certainly was no terror. What there was, however, was a peaceful, non-violent action that sought to raise public awareness about an extremely important and urgent issue. Even police who were present at the action remarked how peaceful the situation was, and how smoothly everything ran. The mood was calm and clear-headed.

Not a single law was broken — and even if there had been any arrests, being arrested is not illegal. Protesting in a new way, which perhaps pushes the envelope more than usual, is also not illegal. What ought to be illegal is Eskom’s reliance on coal and the very real effects their reliance is having in terms of pollution, climate change and adverse effects on human health. These are the true costs of coal, and although they may not be included in our monthly Eskom bills, you can be sure society as a whole is paying for them — and those costs will continue to increase as climate impacts rise.

For me what makes these costs even more perverse is that they extend far beyond South Africa’s borders. Our policies and decisions on how we generate electricity locally have global implications, and those implications are particularly pertinent in Africa. South Africa makes up 38% of the continent’s total CO2 emissions. Simply put, we are driving climate change on the continent, and as such the onus is on us to change our energy generation methods, not just for our benefit, but for the good of vulnerable people across the globe.

Another concern raised was that Greenpeace dumped the coal and then simply left the mess for Eskom to clean up. Greenpeace’s action was about Eskom taking responsibility for the mess caused by its addiction to coal. The truth is that Eskom’s coal-fired plants cause a huge mess every single day: climate impacts, pollution and human health issues are just part of it. Eskom’s having to clean up on Monday morning was a minuscule, symbolic gesture for the massive mess they cause every day, but which never gets dealt with. If only that mess was as simple to deal with as the five tonnes of coal left for them on Monday.

South Africa has a rich history of civil disobedience and of groups protesting for change. Just this month we remembered the Soweto uprising, but Sharpeville is another great example. In that case, laws were broken as part of a peaceful protest in which people burnt their pass books. What makes their action so memorable is the courage they showed in standing up for what they believed in, and they did so entirely aware of the legal consequences that may have followed. Years later we know the cumulative outcomes that resulted, at least in part, from the many instances of civil disobedience in apartheid South Africa. Today we celebrate many of those instances, grateful for where they have got us to. It seems that in some cases, a society may actually benefit from having the rules pushed occasionally, and I think ultimately this was one of those occasions.