On November 7, Greenpeace Africa brought something very far away from the minds of most South Africans to the top of talking trends. “Confronting Kusile” is the phrase making the rounds online on the morning of November 7, and it’s got many regular South Africans talking about the country’s addiction to dirty coal power.
Kusile, an advanced coal-fired power plant project of Eskom in the Delmas municipal area of the Mpumalanga province of South Africa, has seldom been conversation-worthy before, because most South Africans don’t think of dirty, smoggy coal-fired power plants using up 17 million tonnes of coal a year when they turn on their kitchen lights in the dusk. But that is where South Africa’s power comes from, 90% of the country’s power, to be exact.
Greenpeace highlighted that the battle to stop Kusile is not one that is waged between activists and corporations like Eskom – it is a battle that will be waged by every South African citizen – rich or poor, young or old – in the years to come, because the true cost of coal is devastation at every turn.
When Greenpeace activists arrived at the construction site of Kusile, they took local workers and guards by surprise. Seven activists held up their banners in front of the gates as guards ran around looking for something to catch these peaceful protesters out with. The activists locked themselves to gates at the plant’s front entrance – protesting with banners saying ‘Green Jobs Now’ and ‘No Future in Coal’ – calling on ESKOM, the utility company, to stop its coal addiction and instead invest in renewable energy projects in South Africa. The guards found nothing, but soon removed the chained activists with bolt-cutters. The seven Greenpeace volunteers left peacefully.
At the time the bolt-cutters were going into action, six other Greenpeace climbers were starting to scale one of the construction cranes. Climbers were up with great speed and in place to hang their bright yellow banners off the crane before Eskom security even knew something was amiss.
The Greenpeace climbers hung two banners off the 150m crane, reading ‘Kusile: Climate Killer’, to emphasize just what they are doing to the world by letting the construction of this power plant continue.
Because the bottom line is – there is no future in coal for South Africa, or for any other country, for that matter. We need to phase out fossil fuels and start taking advantage of our fantastic renewable energy resources now if we don’t want the prophecy in these banners to come true.
After hanging the banners, three Greenpeace activists were officially arrested. Information on what they have been arrested for is not yet known.
The rest of the climbing team remained on the Kusile crane.
Source: AllAfrica.com.
