Beyond Redistribution: The Role of Recognition and Participation in South Africa's Renewable Energy Trusts

South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP), designed to reduce the economy’s reliance on coal, mandates that private developers allocate a share of ownership in new energy projects to local communities through the establishment of community trusts. This model addresses the historical lack of recognition of the rights of rural, black communities dispossessed under apartheid to participate in economic development, as well as these communities’ ongoing material deprivation. However, based on qualitative interviews with over 100 representatives from affected communities, trusts, local governments, and developers, this paper shows that REIPPPP's redistributive potential is undermined by failures to properly recognise communities’ rights to meaningful participation in policy processes. The flawed, top-down process of establishing community trusts often excludes local actors, depriving them of procedural justice and reinforcing a sense of alienation. Trustees, often appointed without proper consultation, are frequently seen as illegitimate and lack the necessary skills for financial and project management. Additionally, the absence of government support and the burden of debt repayment further stifle the trusts’ potential to redistribute wealth meaningfully. The resulting tensions reveal how inadequate recognition of community agency perpetuates existing inequalities, despite redistributive efforts. This paper argues that while the recognition of past and present injustices faced by specific groups and of their rights to a stake in the energy transition is critical to the development of effective policy, this must be complemented by the pursuit of procedural justice to achieve an equitable distribution of the benefits of the transition. South Africa’s experience contributes to the debates about how policies, in their design and implementation, can balance recognition and redistribution, underscoring the need for inclusive, well-resourced participatory processes in addressing contemporary inequalities.