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It is the fault of the leadership that Africa cannot feed its people: Mantashe

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Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Gwede Mantashe, has told African delegates at the Africa Oil Week conference in Cape Town that it is the fault of the leadership that Africa cannot feed its people.

Mantashe says there are enough minerals and land to produce even fertilisers that can also feed other continents.

Mantashe delivered his keynote address to the nearly 2 000 delegates and 50 energy and petroleum ministers from the African continent.

“Africa can feed itself and feed others in the other continents and yet we are not, and I’m submitting that it’s a leadership question. We’ve got the land galore and we are not using them. We must debate that Africa must be able to feed itself and everybody else.”

Africa Oil Week Conference is under way in Cape Town:

Meanwhile, Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy in the African Union Commission, Doctor Amani Abou-Zeid says Africa should keep improving on its energy mix.

She says while the continent is the lowest environmental polluter at just about 4%, it must continue to comply with cleaner energy conditions.

“Whether its equity, whether its accessor, social development, we are all here to ensure that our resources work for us, and work for us from our perspective, and we are the ones who put the agenda for Africa and not necessarily blindly following someone else’s agenda. And that said, African has never been a climate denialist.”

Ambassador for Africa Oil Week and Nigeria’s former Minister for State Petroleum Resources, Dr Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu has called for Afrocentric energy transition, calling on delegates to challenge themselves to protect Africa’s own interests.

“Let’s take a few pointers, the finance, what has happened over time is shocking in that the global financial market is walking away, and they are saying we are not going to sponsor, we’re not going to finance fossil-driven type investments. So, unless local entities in Africa have the resources to power on, they will be left with very high, very exorbitant fossil financing and those few still investing in this sector are already seeing it.”

Delegates have been encouraged to also consider gas as part of the transitional just energy mix, saying the continent has it in abundance as well.

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