Today, the President signed the Climate Change Act, No. 22 of 2024, into law. The Act effectively centralises control over both private and public development into the hands of the national executive by giving power to the Minister to impose mandatory recommendations onto any level of government in relation to caron emmissions control response, an economic category that is universal in scope.

The Act is available here, at the Parliamentary Monitoring Group.

The Act mandates all spheres of government to submit plans for emission reduction to the Presidential Climate Commission, in line with the National Adaptation Strategy and Plan issued by said national commission.

The massive increase in bureaucratic reporting is likely to strain already overstretched municipal governments, who struggle to recruit qualified administrators as it is.

But beyond this, it allows for the central planning of the entire economy, in line with targets set abroad by unaccountable international organisations attached to the United Nations.

The Act also mandates any and all spheres of government to comply with any recommendations issued by the Minister, which gives extraordinary control over all aspects of development at every level of the state to the national executive branch.

The Commission is chaired by the President, and overseen by Executive Director Crispian "Chippy" Olver, and Deputy Chair Valli Moosa, who have been agitating for alarmist positions on climate, which cheering on industrial projects backed by ANC-aligned BEE groups.

The first National Adaptation Strategy and Plan is mandated to be published within two years, and must create emissions targets for every economic sector, which government must impose mandates on the private sector to reach.

Two ameliorative articles in Section 25 take into account socio-economic considerations, potentially allowing for the economic development of a given area of sector to override emissions considerations, but the discretion to do so remains at the national executive level.

The City of Cape Town recently secured R39 billion worth of carbon credit swaps in exchange for the development of a large program for burning garbage for electricity generation.

Likely these credits, secured ahead of the development of the Climate Change Act, will secure the Cape some degree of economic wiggle room with regards to the incoming central planning targets.

But the Act also empowers the Minister to restrict carbon credits to the level of the individual, reserving the right to refuse any person in the entire country the capacity to engage in any economic enterprise.

The Act further mandates the phasing out, and indefinite downward restriction, of carbon-based fuels, including the use of coal-fired power plants, the reactivation of which has been responsible for the end of loadshedding in recent months.

The outgoing head of Eskom, André de Ruyter, was celebrated abroad for his extensive destruction of electricity generation, which brought South Africa in line with international emissions targets by destroying industrial capacity.

The introduction of new and draconian measures which may mandate similar policies will undoubtedly achieve disastrous effects on the quality of life in an already unstable country.

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