[imagesource:Greenpeace]

While we grapple with electricity issues, our very own Tokoloshe, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe, has been rubbing shoulders with energy experts at the Africa Energy Indaba in Cape Town. From the various news snippets we’ve seen it appears to be a lighted affair with hors d’oeuvres and promises of more coal contracts.

Mantashe seems to be in his element here, although he has thus far not punted any newly discovered minerals such as the infamous ‘Hazenile’ that he tried to promote at an Australian energy conference in 2019. No, we won’t ever forget what a gat you made of yourself, despite your spokesperson saying it was ‘fake news’.

The mineral, along with most of his credibility, has still not been found, but this did not deter Mantashe from once again singing the praises of his favourite tender topic, coal. We won’t bore you with the details of his wheezing, except that it basically boils down to ‘coal, and more coal’. The highlight of his talk however was a surprise appearance by the oil tanker-harassing whale watchers, Greenpeace. These climate activists have zero chill when it comes to coal, so naturally, Mantashe and his incompetent forehead are not very high on their ‘friends of nature’ list.

In a defiant act of civil disobedience, a handful of protestors stormed the stage, holding up posters that decried coal as being equal to corruption, as well as placards urging everyone to ‘focus on renewables’. Okay, perhaps that was misleading as they didn’t really storm the stage as much as saunter over to where the minister was grinding through another ‘I won’t destroy your future if you give me what I want’ speech.

The demonstrators are now being asked to leave by conference organisers. @News24_Business @TeamNews24 pic.twitter.com/PHRtHE9HLl

— Lameez Omarjee (@LameezOmarjee) March 7, 2023

We have become so used to seeing people with posters that, at first, you could have mistaken them for the ANC backup singers that usually appear whenever a comrade stands behind a podium. Even the yellow posters threw us for a loop, but then security noticed they were not there to promote the governing party, nor tell the courts to ‘keep hands off Comrade Mantashe’. And so a few burly security officers floated over to ask them “What’s up?”.

“Many of the people who are demonstrating think we must not mine because we are tampering with the environment. But those minerals are important to move from high carbon emissions to low carbon emissions,”

Mantashe himself was not much perturbed by the ‘chaos’ and merely said they should be ignored, just like the plight of most people in the country. You know, the people who are kakking af because of him and his ilk’s idiocracy. The minister and his forehead did however mention that we need more coal. Always more coal. In fact, it’s probably needed more than cowbell at this moment.

Yes, it’s all very boring and pointless, and we don’t just mean Mantashe. You can watch the whole tepid disruption below. It’s quite long, so just hit stop if Mantashe’s voice makes your nose bleed through your ears.

[source:news24]