“Mentacide occurs when you willingly think and act out of someone else’s interpretation of reality to their benefit and against your survival. It is a subtle state of insanity which, over the last few hundred years, has come to characterize more and more Afrikans globally.”

I don’t disagree with the great Mwalimu K. Bomani Baruti, but if we are to truly hold ourselves accountable, then we must be able to say that modern Africans are stupid AF. How else do you explain grown men and women from the motherland making decisions about their energy future based on the whims of some home-schooled European teenager? It’s a spectacular level of mental gymnastics to speak of a “just transition” if it’s underpinned by the very same capitalist system of exploitation that has exacerbated inequality worldwide. What is just about imposing high-interest loans on South Africa through the “Just Energy Transition Plan” or JET-P while wealthy nations of the world and multinationals benefit from a multitude of tax incentives, subsidies, and gains from the installation and maintenance of these renewable energy solutions?

The “unJUST transition” is the latest iteration of a very thinly veiled imperialist agenda to keep Africa enslaved. Imperialism is the domination of a weaker nation by a stronger one militarily, economically, politically, or culturally, primarily motivated by the desire to gain more territory, access to more land, and to gain more power and influence over the dominated nations. Imperialism is the mental affliction that spawned colonialism, and both deficiencies are driven by racism in a symbiotic nexus of subjugation. Imperialists believe they are fundamentally superior to those they oppress; as such, they view others’ cultures or way of life or even their way of thinking as inferior. According to Lenin, imperialism is the highest form of capitalism, which is why Black people can never claim to be free until we have completely destroyed the capitalist monetary system.

In contemporary politics, imperialism thrives under the guise of neoliberal capitalism — that insatiable greed is what brought the imperialists to Africa after all. Capitalism is how white people enforce racism, as Kwame Ture put it, meaning we cannot possibly utilize it as Africans to liberate the continent, by extension her people. Any plan that is intended for the benefit of Africans must first and foremost be in the interest of Africans. What is in the immediate interest of African people is that Africa exploit her abundant natural resources for the sole benefit of her people… The West pillaged and plundered these very resources to develop industries and infrastructure in their ignominious nation-states — it is these same natural resources that enabled them to establish institutions such as the World Bank and the international monetary fund, IMF which they now employ unashamedly to further exploit Africa!

Blind support of the unJUST transition and much of the rest of that green-washed gibberish is anti-Black and anti-poor — and at times even anti-science! The existing consensus within the scientific community only affirms that global warming/climate change causes a rise in sea level… all the other bits and bobs are nothing but politicking. Hence they dredge out b-grade celebrities and pseudo-scientists to peddle weak propaganda and hoodwink ignorant masses. In this year’s budget speech, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana announced a plan wherein privileged individuals (who can afford to go off-grid) will be able to claim up to a 25% tax rebate on installed rooftop solar panels, and companies can claim a tax deduction of 125% of the cost of any renewable energy project that come to use for the first time in the coming tax year. The median income of a Black man in this criminal colony is R3500 while a basic rooftop solar system costs upwards of R15000,

The green-washed peanut brains touting the unJUST transition routinely neglect to mention that most of the raw materials used in the manufacture of these clean renewable energy solutions are dirty and require a ton of fossil fuels (see: carbon emissions) to mine. These same hypocrites have precious little to say about their own household emissions as they fire up their diesel-powered generators for twelve hours daily, or whenever they need a little retail therapy, not to mention all that noise pollution… but as I’ve said a million times: South Africans are consistently inconsistent.

We would do well to be wary of doublespeak of a just transition that threatens so many jobs and livelihoods — as the bulk of jobs that the JET-P initiative would create would be in the build phase — these would therefore be “job opportunities” (i.e. temporary) and the operational phase will only require a handful of skilled(code for white) staff to run effectively. According to the UN, 80 million jobs will be lost by 2030 due to global warming, this will disproportionately affect will be the poor and underpaid. We sure as hell cannot speak of a just transition that will rob native sons and daughters of even more land. We dare not mistake any initiative or program spearheaded by the West to be for our benefit. We need to awaken to the reality that our so-called ‘allies’ act in their own interest, it is only right that we begin to do the same. Any self respecting African should reject this “just transition” for the conspicuous and vacuous imperialist gobbledygook it is. Africa is for Africans, and it is Africans who Will determine and shape the energy future of Africa. Stay woke.

Peace and Black power