Newsletter, Volume 5

Dear Friends

On the morning of 21 March, as we commemorated Human Rights Day, I joined a conversation on eNCA reflecting on what human rights mean in South Africa today. What stayed with me is a tension we know too well: we speak of rights often, yet for many people, these rights remain unrealised in daily life, whether in access to water, energy, dignified livelihoods, or safe environments.

This is where our work at the New Economy Hub finds its urgency. Climate and economic justice are, at their core, human rights issues. They ask whether people can live with dignity, whether communities can shape their own futures, and whether our systems are designed to serve the many rather than the few. South Africans will be going to the polls again this year for the local government elections. It will be these municipal councils and mayoral committees that will ultimately be responsible for setting the foundations for climate-adaptive local economic development plans whose success will be underpinned by the reforms made possible by the Local Government White Paper Review underway.

We are coming to the end of our 3-year strategy in June this year.Over the coming months, we will be undertaking an evaluation of our work. This is not simply a reporting exercise, but an opportunity to listen deeply to our partners and the field we serve, and calibrate our programme for the realities we are trying to shift. It will help us understand what is working, where we need to adapt our practice, and how we can strengthen our contribution to systemic change using evidence.

Significantly, it is about accountability for the scarce resources we are responsible for at a time of geopolitical uncertainty and when philanthropy is also in transition. We hope that this exercise will contribute to our work remaining relevant, responsive, and rooted in the needs and aspirations of the field, communities, and people we serve.

In the meantime, we invite you to explore some of the work we have been doing, supporting and responding to this last quarter.

Sekoetlane Phamodi

Reclaiming the Economy through #ReclaimTheEconomyWeek

Reclaim the Economy Week is a growing global mobilisation challenging dominant economic models that prioritise GDP growth over people, care, and the planet. Bringing together over 90 activities across more than 20 countries, the initiative creates space for collective reflection and action toward economies rooted in justice, well-being, and shared prosperity. Through local activations, including a convening at Be Hive by the Be The Earth Foundation, participants engaged critically with how economic systems shape everyday life, from rising living costs to the erosion of public services. Drawing on insights from the Economy is Care dialogue series, the activation highlighted the often invisible yet essential role of unpaid care work and the lived realities of inequality, while grounding global debates in local experiences of land, stewardship, and dispossession. These conversations contribute to a growing movement to reimagine economic systems that centre dignity, equity, and care.

Alternative Mining Indaba: Who Carries the Cost of the Energy Transition?

We participated in this year’s Alternative Mining Indaba, where conversations moved beyond familiar dialogue about what’s wrong with the extractive industries to more honest reflections on the realities shaping the energy transition. We joined a panel convened by Oxfam South Africa discussing community-led energy solutions in South Africa, and some of the evidence and interventions we might need to build to bring power to the people where we underscored that advancing community-led energy solutions require more than infrastructure; they depend on land ownership, equitable benefits-sharing, accountability and a governance framework that creates the enabling conditions for it to be possible. We also participated in a 2-day workshop on the responsible use of natural resources and equitable value-chains convened by the Business and Human Rights Centre and the Initiative for Social Performance in Renewable Energy (INSPIRE). The emphatic outcome of this workshop was that with growing demand for critical minerals and limited public resources, for a new economy in the extractive industries to be possible, there is an urgent need for transparency, accountability and inclusive models that deliver shared ownership and shared value.

Economy is Care community radio podcast series

We brought Economy is Care to five communities across five provinces, working with five local radio stations: Vhembe FM (Limpopo), Motheo FM (Free State), Izwi loMzansi FM (KwaZulu-Natal), Mahikeng FM (North West), and Nzo FM (Eastern Cape). We connected each station with local economists and academics from institutions including the University of Venda, University of the Free State, and University of KwaZulu-Natal to lead discussions with listeners in their local languages.

The six-part series concluded during the week of the 2026 Budget Vote, equipping listeners with the language and frameworks to engage meaningfully with the national budget, understanding how fiscal choices, from growth to monetary policy, shape everyday life.

Reimagining Local Governance: Why the White Paper Review Matters

South Africa’s ongoing review of the Local Government White Paper marks a critical moment in rethinking how municipalities function and deliver on their mandate. At its core, the review aims to strengthen the stability, governance, and accountability of local government, ensuring that basic services are delivered more efficiently, reliably, and sustainably. But beyond institutional reform, this process carries broader significance. It creates an opportunity to reposition municipalities at the centre of the country’s response to climate change. As the frontline of service delivery, local governments are best placed to address the everyday realities of climate impacts, from water security to infrastructure resilience.

Protecting local industry: ITAC moves to strengthen South Africa’s renewable energy value chain

On 27 March 2026, the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (ITAC) gazetted preliminary determinations following its 2025 review of tariffs on inputs, components, and finished goods used in the renewable energy sector. The determinations signal ITAC’s intent to recommend six measures to the Minister of Trade, Industry, and Competition aimed at protecting local suppliers and positioning South Africa’s energy transition as a driver of reindustrialisation and job creation.  

These include raising customs duties on listed tariff lines and lithium-ion batteries to 15%; introducing a phased discontinuation of the solar PV import rebate, contingent on domestic assembly reaching 50% of local demand; designating key components for local content and procurement requirements; excluding those components from the staged consignment policy; and establishing an industry advisory committee. Final determinations are yet to be made.

Copyright (C) 2025 New Economy Hub. All rights reserved.

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