South Africa’s Southern African neighbours are showing us up on the green energy front – as well as in the field of mineral exploration. The ink was hardly dry on Namibia’s laudatory plan to generate green hydrogen on a big scale when Zambia swooped on Johannesburg to communicate its convincing plan of boosting green energy generation and copper/cobalt output.
Much more keenness needs to be shown by South Africa. Zambia was replete with enthusiasm and displayed incentivisation was there for the taking. On the mineral exploration front, targets are enthusiastically set but not met. South Africa’s target of securing 5% of global exploration expenditure in five years is moving further out.
The latest report shows us up as not even being able to attract 1%, let alone 5% – and this despite our target being two-and-a-half years down the line. Again, countries such as Namibia and Botswana are stealing a march on us and we are not taking any discernible action to meet our goals.