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| Goldman Environment Prize Winners 2018: (Clockwise from Top Left) Manny Calonzo, Francia Márquez, Nguy Thi Khanh, LeAnne Walters, Makoma Lekalakala and Liz McDaid, Claire Nouvian. Photograph: 2018 Goldman Environmental Prize - Image source: Goldman Environmental Foundation |
Two grassroots women activists – one black, one
white – stand together against two of the world’s most powerful men – one
black, one white – over a secret, undemocratic, multibillion dollar nuclear
deal.
If this was the plot of a Netflix series, it
might be dismissed as too neat, too perfectly symbolic and symmetrical.
But this is the true story of the two South
African winners of this year’s Goldman
Environment
Prize who tapped their roots in the anti-apartheid struggle to take on
and beat an agreement by their nation’s recently deposed leader Jacob Zuma and
Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
Makoma Lekalakala and Liz McDaid were the sole
signatories of a successful legal challenge against the plan for South Africa to
buy up to 10 nuclear power stations from Russia at an estimated cost of 1tn
rand (US$76bn).
After a five-year legal battle, a high
court outlawed the
deal last April and accepted the plaintiffs’ claims that it had been arranged
without proper consultation with parliament. Aside from the immense geopolitical
ramifications, the ruling was a vindication for the civil society movement that
aims to expand public participation, especially by woman, in energy
decision-making.
There were risks in confronting the president,
the electricity utility and the interests of a foreign power. The two women
were warned they could face violence and attacks on their reputation, but they
signed the legal papers regardless.
“It is important that this campaign is led by
women,” Lekalakala said in an interview in Cape Town. “We are getting this
[Goldman] prize because we really sacrificed ourselves by putting our names on
the line. Others were shit-scared. But we’ve been through so much that we were
willing to take the risk.”
McDaid, who works for the Southern African Faith Communities’
Environment Institute, said the campaign was a recognition that grassroots
action can work. “Governments everywhere like to give the impression that
citizens have no power. That’s not true. We have checks and balances and we
need to use them.”
Both cut their activist teeth in the
anti-apartheid struggle of the 1980s. McDaid, then a teacher, was caught up in
the Trojan Horse massacre in Athlone, Cape Town. She hid students sought by
police in her house and used her car to block troops chasing students.
Lekalakala grew up in Soweto, the heartland of
the black consciousness movement. She served as a shop steward in a department
store when she was 19 years old. She also witnessed some of the worst of the
violence, both from the white authorities and black-on-black factional
conflict.
In the late eighties, an era when alleged
apartheid collaborators were being punished with “necklaces” of burning tyres,
she was woken by screams in the middle of the night and found bodies on the
floor in the morning. “That was the hardest time of my life,” she
recalls.
This background has made the two women relatively
fearless. They have both been threatened and suffered break-ins in which alarm
systems were expertly dismantled and only their laptops (rather than valuables
like jewellery or cameras) were stolen, suggesting the intruders were after
information rather than money.
“It’s harassment,” said Lekalakala. “But I’m very
forceful. I’m used to threats.”
The two began working together in 2009 when they
joined Earthlife, a group designed
to encourage women to become more involved in energy and climate policy-making.
For Lekalakala, it was an eye-opening experience.
“When I started at Earthlife I was one of the only black women. I thought that
was wrong. It is poor black women who are most affected but it is rich white
men making all the decisions.”
They have proved influential, providing input
into the National Energy Act
and the climate energy policy. They challenged the long-held view that energy is
a technical, engineering matter for specialists rather than ordinary people.
“We broke that barrier and we are continuously breaking barriers,” said
Lekalakala, who has also campaigned against plans for a coal mine at
Thabametsi.
They were tipped off about the nuclear deal by
the Russian group EcoDefence.
Although the South African government had not told the public about the plan,
its business partner, state-owned Rosatom initially posted an announcement on
its website. This was quickly taken down
but not before Earthlife made a copy that they used to rally opposition from
environmentalists, faith groups, lawyers,
and, the media.
Their court victory was a major setback for
Putin’s plans to increase Russia’s income and influence, and may have
contributed to the fall of Zuma after nine years in power. The president had
reportedly fired two finance ministers in part because they were unwilling to
approve the $76bn cost of the project. It was also a focus of corruption claims
by political enemies and rivals in the ANC, given reports that
Zuma’s son was a director of the sole mine that supplied uranium.
The new government has signalled a shift in
direction. President Cyril Ramaphosa said in Davos this year that the plan to
add 9.6 gigawatts of nuclear energy was off the table. More recently, energy
minister Jeff Radebe has signed deals that will promote wind and solar power.
“The political signs are good that nuclear is not
going ahead any time soon,” said McDaid. “But I think this is just a step on
the path to a nuclear-free South Africa. There is a long way
to go. Success would be for our one existing plant to be decommissioned and for
the government to make a nuclear-free declaration.”
Lekalakala agrees on the need to stay vigilant
because coal - along with nuclear - remains a concern and the government will
revisit its energy policy in five years.
“Civil society can claim some credit for ensuring
the government didn’t run along a nuclear path that would have bankrupted the
country,” she said. “We’ll use the Goldman award to further our struggle and
build a new generation of activists.”
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| The Goldman Environment Prize - Image source: Goldman Environmental Foundation |
Michigan
Water Activist, 6 Others Win Environmental Prize
A woman who played a key role in exposing the
lead-tainted water disaster in Flint, Michigan, is among seven people from
around the world to be awarded a Goldman Environmental Prize for grassroots
environmental activism.
LeeAnne Walters was repeatedly rebuffed by Gov.
Rick Snyder's administration, even as she confronted regulators with bottles of
brown water that came from her kitchen tap. Finally, with critical help from a
Virginia Tech research team and a local doctor, it was revealed in 2015 that
Flint's water system was contaminated with lead due to a lack of treatment.
Walters, a mother of four, "worked
tirelessly behind the scenes to bring justice to not only her immediate family
but all residents of Flint," the Goldman Environmental Foundation said Monday
in announcing this year's winners.
The prize was created in 1989 by the late San
Francisco philanthropists Richard and Rhoda Goldman. Winners are selected from
nominations made by environmental organizations and others. The prize carries a
US$200,000 award.
Walters now lives in Virginia but regularly
returns to Flint, where thousands of home water lines are being replaced due to
the lead crisis. The city's water quality has improved since it stopped using
the Flint River as its source after 18 months, although there are many concerns
about lead that was ingested, especially by children.
The other winners are:
- Francia Marquez of Colombia, who rallied other
women to vigorously oppose gold mining in the Cauca region.
- Claire Nouvian of France, who successfully
campaigned against deep-sea fish trawling.
- Makoma Lekalakala and Liz McDaid of South
Africa, who fought to stop a nuclear plant deal between their country and
Russia.
- Manny Calonzo of the Philippines, who led an
effort to ban lead paint.
- Khanh Nguy Thi of Vietnam, who used scientific research to discourage dependency on coal-fired power.
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