Replacing coal with renewable energy will reduce employment in South Africa, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe warned this week.
In an interview with the Mail & Guardian on the sidelines of this year’s Investing in African Mining Indaba, Mantashe said jobs would be lost during the transition from coal-fired energy to renewable power in a country already grappling with an expanded unemployment rate of 46.2% of the labour force.
The answer, he said, was to overhaul the country’s economic framework.