Navina Sanchez, Just South Africa project director, GIZ (German Development Agency)

German government cooperation with South Africa began just ahead of the dawn of democracy in the southern African country. The German Development Agency (GIZ) has offices in South Africa, Lesotho and Eswatini, and 261 staff in the region, covering 48 projects and 12 “service packages”, says Navina Sanchez, the agency’s Just South Africa project director.

In Mpumalanga, the agency is involved in work on a just transition in a wide variety of projects, from water conservation and waste-water treatment, energy efficiency in buildings, and the development of green hydrogen, to skills development and technological innovation, Sanchez said.

GIZ’s work in South Africa is guided by the country’s Presidential Climate Commission, an independent, statutory, multistakeholder body established by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The organisation is involved in a wide variety of just transition-related activities in South Africa, with pilot programmes in selected municipalities, Sanchez said. Just transition is a catchphrase that encompasses a range of social interventions put in place to secure workers’ rights and livelihoods when economies are shifting to an economy powered by renewable energy and moving away from a purely extractive mode to one that is more reliant on recycling and other sustainable actions.

The programmes include support for small and medium-sized businesses and green jobs and skills development. GIZ also supports communication and dialogue aimed at improving awareness of climate change and biodiversity issues, and provides support for a biomass industry and for improving and maintaining water infrastructure to “enhance water resilience”.

In addition, GIZ is supporting South Africa’s national power utility Eskom in its implementation of just transition strategies, and is involved in a dialogue series, with the policy think tank Trade & Industrial Policy Strategies and the WWF, on employment and how it needs to change in the switch to a low-carbon economy.

GIZ is working with the South African National Energy Association and Wits Business School’s African Energy Leadership Centre on a “just energy transition roadmap” for South Africa, and, with Mpumalanga’s Department of Economic Development and Tourism, is supporting non-profit organisations GreenCape and the Green Economy Cluster Agency (Mpumalanga).

GIZ is also working with international partners such as the United Nations Environment Programme to “sustain and increase momentum” for the “decarbonisation” of South Africa’s recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. Under the Green Economy Transformation programme, the agency is also working with the governments of Argentina, Costa Rica and Indonesia.

As part of this programme’s implementation in South Africa, GIZ is collaborating with the National Business Initiative, a voluntary business coalition working towards “green growth”, on a competition for small and micro-enterprises, four of which are based in Mpumalanga, Sanchez said.

GIZ is also about to launch another programme, Just Transition to a Decarbonised Economy for South Africa, she said. This programme is aimed at matching skills and jobs in selected municipalities.