Cape Town - As our country battles the energy crisis, the governing party must be commended for suggesting that our country needs an energy mix rather than simply pushing for renewables.
However, we have seen that South Africa has received much support, politically and financially, to ensure the rapid introduction of renewables by the West, in particular.
Recently, US treasury secretary Janet Yellen visited South Africa because our country, as she said, “is the first country with a just energy transition partnership to which the US was proud to commit as a partner”.
Yet, since the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine, reports suggest that there has been an uptick in the production of coal in the US.
Following Yellen’s visit, the EU announced its partnership with South Africa, through its Global Gateway initiative, to invest to the tune of ¤280 million (R5.310 trillion) in its just and green recovery.
But again, Germany and Denmark are resuscitating coal production.
It is, therefore, difficult to work with the West in this just transition when it seems countries in the West are going in the opposite direction.
Sadly, it is a case of “Do what I say, not what I do”.
This hypocrisy has been found in the West since time immemorial and continues to this day unabated.
For example, at the end of October 2022, US spokesperson for the state department, Ned Price, condemned the government of Kyrgyzstan for the deportation of Bolot Temirov.
“Dismayed by the decision to deport journalist Bolot Temirov from the Kyrgyz Republic,” tweeted Price.
He continued: “Journalists should never be punished for doing their job. The Kyrgyz Republic has been known for its vibrant civil society – attempts to stifle freedom of expression stain that reputation.”
Ironically, a mere four months earlier, the same Price had said that “there has been no change...” on the extradition of Australian journalist and publicist Julian Assange.
In fact, to prove the hypocrisy, the US simply does not regard Assange as a journalist.
So, on the one hand, the US condemns another country for the extradition of one journalist to another, but on the other hand, it is happy to receive and even co-operate with the British to extradite another journalist to the US.
Reports suggest that journalist Assange faces up to 175 years in prison for simply exposing US war crimes.
The government of the US certainly leads the way in these double standards, and American society has become littered with such cases.
In recent weeks, Elon Musk, the “Chief Twit”, emailed Twitter’s surviving employees, warning them against “disclosing confidential material” and further threatening these employees with legal action if they did so.
“This will be said only once,” wrote Musk. “If you clearly and deliberately violate the NDA (non-disclosure agreement) that you signed when you joined, you accept liability to the full extent of the law & Twitter will immediately seek damages ...”
On the other hand, Musk has defended his decision to release the Twitter Files, to the anger of Trump supporters, and describes himself as a “free speech absolutist” and tweeted before that “sunlight is the best disinfectant” as well as that “transparency is the key to trust”.
On another occasion, the right of the state to hold secrets, especially from its citizens, has been defended by this author.
It is, therefore, not about whether a country or a company, such as the US or Twitter can hold secrets and have laws to defend these secrets or not.
Rather, the sting is in the sanctimony of the West, and the US, in particular.
*Seale has a PhD in international relations
Cape Times