Africa: Activists Gather At TotalEnergies Offices to 'Kick Polluters Out of Africa'

Campaign laid blame for South Africa's skyrocketing electricity tariffs at the feet of the fossil fuel industry

As TotalEnergies held its Annual General Meeting in France on Friday, climate activists gathered at the company's Johannesburg headquarters to protest the fossil fuel industry.

The gathering was organised by the StopEACOP (East African Crude Oil Pipeline) Campaign and joined by several other climate justice organisations. It comes at the end of a global "week of action" in 19 countries.

StopEACOP's primary aim is to protest TotalEnergies' oil projects in East Africa, Mozambique and Namibia.

In a statement, the campaign also blamed South Africa's skyrocketing electricity tariffs on the fossil fuel industry.

"For the country's poorest families, the cost of electricity now exceeds spending on basic food items like maize meal or bread, forcing a choice between electricity or food," the statement read.

The government's fossil fuel subsidies - R118-billion in 2023 alone - should be redirected to provide free renewable energy to citizens, the campaign demanded.

As part of a global effort to "Kick Polluters Out of Africa," the campaign identified TotalEnergies as a primary driver of "energy poverty" and environmental destruction. The activists accused TotalEnergies, alongside other major polluters and industry bodies, of a two-decade lobbying effort to weaken climate policies like the Carbon Tax Act.

"The fossil fuel lobby plays a significant role in not only undermining climate targets but also a just transition, while our people suffer. Total should stop its operations in South Africa and other African countries," said Zaki Mamdoo, StopEACOP Campaign Coordinator.

Gladys Nester Ndebele, from a coal mining-affected area in Sedibeng, said her community's electricity transformer stopped working in 2018, and they have been without electricity since.

"We need electricity; the government should stop supporting fossil fuels and provide us with solar."

Representatives from TotalEnergies did not come out to address the picketers and did not respond to a request for comment.

Read the original article on GroundUp.