GOVERNANCE AND THE JUST TRANSITION

In the process, it needs both: • To pursue economically and scientifically sustainable interventions in a context of uncertain and evolving information; and • To empower the affected citizens to influence key decisions, and to support social solidarity and collaboration in their implementation. [...] None of the agencies in the table, except for the Department of Fisheries, Forestry and the Environment (DFFE) and the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE), include the just transition explicitly in their annual performance plans. [...] The process of getting approvals for the huge new coal plant proposed for the Musina Makhado SEZ in Limpopo exemplify the fundamental weaknesses in existing decision-making systems from the standpoint of the just transition. [...] The factors behind the deadlock can be understood as a consequence of contradictions between the aims and inputs laid out in the mandated decision-making system, on the one hand, and the perspective of the decision-makers, on the other – specifically, the Limpopo Department of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism (LEDET). [...] The blockages to participatory democracy can be understood in terms of the scope for working people and their communities to organise, on the one hand, and the nature of decision-making systems on the other.