The Just Transition Deferred: The Case of South Africa’s Dysfunctional Shared Ownership Model in Renewable Energy

South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme has been praised for its transparency and efficiency in driving large-scale infrastructure development that reduces the economy’s outsized dependence on coal. There are potential social benefits too. Private developers are required to confer ownership of a portion of new utilities to surrounding communities via the establishment of community trusts. This unusual, potentially transformative shared ownership model recognises and provides a remedy for the historical dispossession and exploitation of rural, black communities that do not have sufficient resources to independently build and operate fully community-owned infrastructure. However, based on over 100 interviews with representatives from the communities, trusts, local governments, development banks, and private developers, this article finds that the programme's potential for advancing energy justice remains largely unfulfilled.

This is frequently due to failures to advance procedural justice, including rushed processes for establishing trusts, and domination by company representatives that have little experience in community development or participatory processes. Eventual trustees similarly lack experience in financial or project management or are regarded as illegitimate representatives of their communities. Moreover, government provides neither resources nor guidelines for establishment or operations, resulting in fragile and ineffective institutional structures. Finally, the redistributive potential of the trusts is undermined by paralysing terms on the debt used to finance the trusts ownership’ stakes, and repayment has often fully consumed the trusts’ income. Inadequate, indifferent implementation of progressive policy has thus perpetuated old inequalities and led to widespread disillusionment, leading to calls from diverse quarters to abandon the policy. South Africa’s experience is a useful case study to inform global debates about the ownership and financing of green infrastructure, and about the complexities of promoting social justice in the global energy transition.