Press Release
Tuesday, 8 October 2024
Mass Protest in Sandton as Community-Based Organisations, NGOs, Trade Unions and
Social and Environmental Justice Groups March Against the African Energy Chamber
and African Energy Week
Johannesburg – On Tuesday, 8 October 2024, over 1,000 people, from a broad coalition of community
based organisations, civil society organisations, trade unions, environmental and social justice groups
and a broad collection of working class activists, and community members impacted by extractive
projects, will gathered in Sandton, Johannesburg to protest against the African Energy Chamber (AEC)
and its fossil-addicted African Energy Week (AEW) conference. The large group of demonstrators
marched from Sandton Central Park to the AEC Offices via the representatives of fossil fuel imperialism,
war and environmental destruction; including the ultra-Zionist Ichikowitz Family Foundation which is tied
to Ivor Ichikowitz’ Paramount Group, the U.S. Consulate and the headquarters of Sasol.
Protestors denounced the AEC’s promotion of fossil fuel exploitation across Africa, which has devastating social, environmental, and economic impacts on African communities and societies, while benefiting
multinational corporations and global imperial powers. In their rejection of AEW, the demonstrators
pointed out that AEW and its host, the AEC, play a role in perpetuating fossil fuel-driven neo-colonialism.
By creating a space for the representatives of global finance capital and international fossil fuel
corporations to exercise their influence on African governments and decision makers, AEW serves the
interests of multinational corporations and imperial nations abroad. AEW seeks to legitimise conditions
which exploit Africa’s energy resources to line the pockets of an international elite, fuel the war machine
of Western imperialism and drive the economies of the Global North, while leaving African communities
impoverished. During numerous addresses and public speeches through the march, representatives from numerous organisations and environmental and social justice groups also strongly rejected the policies pushed by AEW—free-market economics, deregulation, and privatisation— which are designed to entrench debt, underdevelopment, and exploitation, while accelerating climate collapse and
environmental degradation across the continent.
Specifically, demonstrators called for an end to the AEC’s role in promoting fossil fuel projects like the
East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), which displaces communities and devastates ecosystems in
Uganda and Tanzania while providing no real socio-economic benefit for ordinary people. They further
highlighted the AEC’s complicity in sustaining the exploitation of critical minerals and huge oil reserves in
the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
For the hundreds of activists who took to the streets today there is a clear understanding that participants in the AEW enable global imperialism, including Israel’s genocidal onslaught against the Palestinian people, given that coal exports from South Africa – especially from Glencore and African Rainbow Minerals – have long fuelled that apartheid regime’s power grid.
At the African Energy Chamber office building on the Corner of Katherine and West street, which is
headed by the serial-fraudster NJ Ayuk, the demonstrators read out an open letter which has been
endorsed by over 250 African civil society organisations, community based organisations, social and
environmental justice groups, faith based organisations and trade unions. The letter, outlines the following
critical demands:
● The immediate cancellation of African Energy Week
● African governments must Boycott African Energy Week and cut ties with its host, the African
Energy Chamber
● African leaders must reject fossil fuel expansion on the continent and aggressively pursue a just,
people-centred transition to renewable energy
● Multinational corporations must pay reparations for the immense environmental and social
destruction caused by fossil fuel extraction and exploitation across the continent.
On route to the African Energy Chamber, demonstrators stopped briefly at the ultra-Zionist Ichikowitz
Family Foundation, where a speaker from South African Jews for a Free Palestine (SAJFP) led the group in denouncing Ivor Ichikowitz and the Paramount Group’s prolific supply of war ships to protect Big Oil in the Niger Delta, as well as it’s Burnham Global Private Military Company’s role in the extraction of Blood Methane from Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, where Ichikowitz’s forces and military sales have already contributed to death, destruction and the climate catastrophe that boomerangs back in the form of extreme, ultra-deadly cyclones.
Demonstrators also sat outside the U.S. Consulate, where, led by a speaker from the General Industries
Workers Union of South Africa (GIWUSA), they condemned U.S. imperialism and decried the role of the
Pentagon as the world’s #1 emitter of CO2 as well as the force behind countless oil-related coups and
wars in West Asia, North Africa and in our own region. Across Africa, the massively destructive roles
played by U.S. oil and gas firms including Chevron, ExxonMobil and Conocophillips are often backed by
the U.S. state. Those oil firms’ profits far outstrip the U.S. government’s pathetic energy aid and Just
Energy Transition Partnership (market-rate) financing. The processision also used the opportunity to
observe the moment of the 1 year anniversary of Israel’s latest genocidal onslaught against the
Palestinian people and condemned the U.S’ backing of Israel’s settler colonial project of genocide and
ethnic cleansing.
Lastly, demonstrators stopped at the headquarters of Sasol, where activists from the Vaal Environmental
Justice Alliance spotlighted Sasol’s deadly pollution and devastation of communities in South Africa and
Mozambique, emphasising the reparations owed by Sasol to those communities for the immense social
and environmental destruction caused by its operations and the operations of companies like it.
Quotes:
“The African Energy Week has become an annual fair hosted on African soil to deliberate about foreign
fossil fuel-driven energy interests and priorities and to mock Africans for their energy poverty while
ignoring the climate emergency that the world is in for the continued use of dirty energy. By permitting oil
multinationals to continue to explore and drill in the continent at a time the world is racing towards a green energy future, we risk locking economies into a trap of expensive stranded assets. Our commitment to a just energy future and climate justice for the continent, though, is bearing fruit. Over the last few years, some major Western banks have announced plans to scale down their funding for fossil fuel projects. While this is a win, we must heighten the pressure to compel these financial institutions to support renewable energy investments in Africa.” – Bhekumuzi Dean Bhebhe, Senior Just Transition &
Campaign Advisor at Powershift Africa
“The protest against African Energy Week serves as a powerful statement against the ongoing
greenwashing tactics employed by fossil fuel companies. This event symbolises a growing resistance to
the continued extraction of Africa’s natural resources, which ultimately undermine the needs and rights of
the continent’s people. We demand the cessation of African Energy Week, as it perpetuates a policy
agenda that prioritises corporate profits over the well-being of communities and the environment.
Furthermore, the call for clear greenwashing regulations is essential to hold companies accountable for
misleading advertising and PR strategies. This is not just about transparency; it’s about ensuring that the
voices of African citizens are heard and that their needs are prioritised in discussions about energy and
development. We envision a future where sustainable practices are genuinely embraced, and the true
potential of Africa’s resources is harnessed for the benefit of its people, not just for profit.” – Lazola Kati,
Ad Ban Campaign Manager at Fossil Free South Africa
“The climate emergency shows the existential dangers of energy systems based on profiteering. Despite
record-breaking global temperatures in 2023 and the rising human and environmental costs of climate
disaster, fossil fuel production continues seemingly unabated, with Big Oil companies making huge
profits. And yet, instead of meaningfully taxing these companies or implementing a coordinated strategy
to build public renewable energy infrastructure or implementing a public works jobs and training
programme for much-needed climate jobs, our leaders have their hands tied by the purse strings of the
very multinationals that got us into this mess. Shame on them.” – Ferron Pedro, Senior Campaign at
350Africa.org
“Africa Energy Week represents the united power of big corporate fossil fuel monopolies, to which we
must counterpose working class unity, and power. Ultimately only a revolutionary transition would be a
just transition which, through working class power will ensure and guarantee a transition to clean
renewable energy to meet all our energy needs and on the basis of decent paying jobs.” – Mametlwe
Sebei, President of the General Industries Workers Union of South Africa (GIWUSA)
“We have marched through Africa’s richest square mile, in defiance of the many corporate criminals who
call it home, to reject the unholy alliance between finance capital, African governments and the fossil fuel
industry. We see the pro-genocide, pro-war, pro-fossil fuels and pro-exploitation operations of Ivor
Itchikowitz’s Paramount Group; we see the unapologetic violence, destruction and war mongering of
American imperialism; the suffocating pollution and devastation caused by Sasol; and the corrupt
bolstering of it all by the sinister African Energy Chamber fossil fuel lobby group and its fraudster
chairman, NJ Auyk. We reject them all and demand that our leaders cut ties with the African Energy
Chamber and boycott events where elites plot our demise for their enrichment. African leaders must
engage in a process of deep and meaningful consultation with communities, civil society and ordinary
people to pursue a developmental path that serves our collective interests for jobs, housing, education,
healthcare, adequate nutrition and climate stability.” – Zaki Mamdoo, StopEACOP Campaign
Coordinator
“The African Energy Week has become a stage for pro-Global North interests to showcase their wares to
eager African countries. It puts forward a model of “development” that resembles colonial patterns. We,
as Africans, don’t need dirty energy, crippling debt, and carbon bombs. We demand clean energy, debtcancellation, and climate reparations.” – Yegeshni Moodley, Senior Climate and Energy Justice
Campaigner at GroundWork
Photos & Videos from the demonstration can be found here:
AEW Sandton Protest – Photos & Videos
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For media inquiries, interviews, or additional information, please contact:
Tumi Masipa:
/ +27 81 452 9096
Phumla Duma:
/ +27 679 22 3430
Abiud Onyach:
/ +254 727 670 279
Tsepang Molefe
/ +27 74 405 1257
