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- The CSIR says its work is scientific and technical.
- No funds have yet flowed to it from a foundation named by Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe.
- Mantashe said that the CSIR was using foreign funds to undermine him.
The CSIR, government’s leading scientific and technology research organisation, has given a matter-of-fact response to allegations by Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe that it was part of foreign-funded efforts to undermine his department.
The CSIR Energy Centre is involved in research on renewable energy and resource forecasting, and is leading the development of a just energy transition support plan for SA.
Mantashe made the allegations in City Press in January, when he said his department was monitoring funds from the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) in the UK, "which is channelled to an institution based in the University of Cape Town, which funds a number of projects including aspects of the CSIR and other civil society groups to destabilise the work of the department".
The CIFF, which, among other interests, is a global funder of climate change-related projects, has funded independent and academic research programmes on energy in SA. These include UCT’s Power Futures Lab and independent research outfit Meridian Economics. But its link with the CSIR is one step removed, and no funding has yet flowed between the CIFF and CSIR.
In response to questions, the CSIR said that its Energy Centre was a participant in the Global Power Transformation Consortium led by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) based in the United States. One of the funders of the consortium is the CIFF.
"Whilst various projects have been identified to take place under this consortium, no work has commenced in South Africa, pending the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement between the CSIR, Eskom and NREL. Importantly, should the agreement be concluded, the CSIR will become an implementing partner to the consortium and all engagements from the CSIR will be with NREL and not directly with CIFF," it said.
The CSIR’s work on national energy matters is limited to the research and innovation for energy security and a just energy transition as per the mandate of the CSIR.
Mantashe has on many occasions expressed his annoyance at proponents of renewable energy both domestically and internationally. He argues that because SA has abundant coal resources, it would be foolish to leave them in the ground and switch to renewable energy.
He is also deeply suspicious of the motives of activists campaigning against oil and gas exploration, who he says are anti-development and do not want black people to benefit from the country’s resources.
