Stakeholder perspectives on engaging with South Africa’s JUST TRANSITION

Stakeholder perspectives on engaging with South Africa’s Just Transition

Achieving a just transition in South Africa requires a people-centred approach that moves beyond technology to address broader issues of justice, poverty, and unemployment. This guide, based on research by ICLEI Africa for the Presidential Climate Commission (PCC), examines how social partners perceive the transition and identifies pathways to strengthen stakeholder engagement. The findings highlight that while there is broad support for the transition, there is a clear need for more inclusive, transparent, and collaborative processes to build the necessary trust and social consensus.

Key insights from the research include:

• Diverse Interpretations: There is no single "just transition." Stakeholders—ranging from civil society and academia to the private sector—hold varied views, emphasising the need to move beyond a narrow focus on electricity to include sectors like skills development, agriculture, and tourism.
• Challenges in Engagement: Current engagement efforts are often perceived as top-down or "tick-the-box" exercises. Stakeholders and communities demand more regular, two-way dialogue, greater accessibility, and transparent feedback on how their input influences decisions.
• Building Trust and Addressing Mistrust: A significant barrier to the transition is the trust deficit rooted in knowledge gaps and poor communication. Effectively addressing these requires translating complex technical research into relevant information and utilising local "knowledge brokers" to bridge the gap between national policy and community realities.
• Consensus vs. Contestation: Rather than trying to avoid conflict, the process should embrace and manage contestation. Shifting consensus toward greater ambition requires moving beyond the "lowest common denominator" by valuing diverse knowledge systems and aligning short-term, concrete trade-offs with long-term, abstract gains.