Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and South Africa's Energy Sector Reform

Introduction

This case study examines the role of women in power in South Africa's energy sector. Specifically, it addresses whether South Africa's first female Minister of Minerals and Energy, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, was responsible for expelling the foreign nationals who previously controlled South Africa's energy sector. A considerable body of evidence suggests that Mlambo-Ngcuka played an influential role in this outcome. Nonetheless, her contribution must be examined in scope and in the context of the displacement of those predominantly male foreign nationals from control of South Africa's energy supply.

The decision point of this case study centers on the actions Mlambo-Ngcuka took which produced this result. Not long after coming to power, she created a Women's Energy Group that helped integrate women into South Africa's Department of Energy. This case study examines the argument that the founding of that group — and the subsequent action it took under the leadership of the female Minister of Minerals and Energy — was the pivotal decision point resulting in South Africa's energy sector being controlled by those indigenous to the country, rather than by foreign nationals.

The subsequent sections detail the circumstances surrounding Mlambo-Ngcuka's appointment as Minister of Minerals and Energy, and those contributing to her forming the Women's Energy Group. More importantly, the paper presents details about the group's efforts to remove foreign nationals from this area of South African commerce. It also gives due consideration to Mlambo-Ngcuka's objectives upon assuming this position, as well as those of the group she established. Of equal importance are the consequences of the efforts of the women appointed to the Women's Energy Group.

This paper also provides details about the most prominent contributions that may or may not have resulted in the elimination of foreign control over South Africa's Department of Energy resources. The research analyzes the various possibilities and constraints affecting the work of Mlambo-Ngcuka and her women's organization as it sought to deliver energy sector solidarity to South Africa. The author evaluates all of these facets of Mlambo-Ngcuka's tenure as Minister of Minerals and Energy within the context of the available evidence, taking care to scrutinize that evidence for various biases. Lastly, the paper identifies the specific measures that resulted in the ousting of foreign nationals from South Africa's energy department, and considers whether those measures are applicable to other female-oriented groups in other locations, including the United States (Caiazza, 2008, p. 106).

Mlambo-Ngcuka's Background and Career

As the principal decision-maker examined in this paper, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka has a varied and detailed professional and educational history that is essential for understanding her role within the context of female authority in South Africa. Her career path has led her to the title of Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women with the United Nations (UN Women, 2018). The focus on womanhood and female empowerment implicit in this title and her work with the United Nations is merely the latest manifestation of her decades-long efforts in this direction.

Born on November 3, 1955, Mlambo-Ngcuka began her career as a school teacher. She showed tendencies toward the empowerment of women in positions of authority early in her career. In 1983, she became the inaugural president of the Natal Organization of Women, which was affiliated with the United Democratic Front (South Africa History Online, 2011). A common theme throughout her career was gender equality. Prior to her appointment as South Africa's Minister of Minerals and Energy in 1999, Mlambo-Ngcuka served on the board of the Women's Development Foundation, was youth director for the Young Women's Christian Association, and held a management consultant position at Cape Town's Phumelela Services, where "she was responsible for promoting race and gender sensitive organizational development" (South Africa History Online, 2011), among other duties. Her roles in each of these positions clearly demonstrate a consistent commitment to female empowerment in positions of authority within South Africa.

The Political and Economic Climate

Before Mlambo-Ngcuka took office as Minister of Minerals and Energy, a number of distinct developments within South Africa's political and economic climate enabled her to achieve what she accomplished in this role. Foremost among these was the 1998 White Paper on Energy Policy, which explicitly required native South Africans to expand their involvement in the political and economic developments occurring in the country. This white paper included stipulations for "meaningful participation in the industry by South Africans who were excluded in the past through the general racial political dispensation, social inequalities and provisions governing the industry, specifically" (Energy.gov, 2018).

The true significance of this white paper — and its decree that South Africans rather than foreign nationals should benefit from the country's resources — is realized when one considers the specific resources involved. South Africa is symbolic of Africa as a whole in possessing an abundance of natural resources that are enviable to other parts of the world. With native South Africans and the government that supports them empowered by these resources, the country had the potential to considerably better itself as a developing nation. According to the white paper:

"Fossil fuels, such as coal, uranium, liquid fuels, and gas play a central role in the socio-economic development of our country, while simultaneously providing the necessary infrastructural economic base for the country to become an attractive host for foreign investments in the energy sector" (Department of Minerals and Energy, 1998, p. 2).

This context is tremendously important for understanding the circumstances in which Mlambo-Ngcuka came to power. South Africa was at that time asserting greater control over the natural resources it should have possessed by right. The very department Mlambo-Ngcuka was placed in charge of was attempting "to set the sustainable presence, ownership or control by historically disadvantaged South Africans of a quarter of all facets of the liquid fuels industry or plans to achieve this as a milestone to trigger the substantive re-regulation of the petroleum and liquid fuels industry in South Africa" (Energy.gov, 2018). The re-regulation of these resources was perhaps the primary impetus for this movement, and a vital component of that impetus was giving South Africans ownership over at least a portion of those resources. Mlambo-Ngcuka was therefore appointed Minister of Minerals and Energy at the very moment the department was attempting to assert much greater ownership than it previously had.

The Decision Point and Task Team Formation

The decision point at the focal point of this case study is not the appointment of Mlambo-Ngcuka to a leadership position in South Africa's minerals and energy department. The decision point is what she would do to achieve the objectives specified in the aforementioned white paper. In retrospect, it appears that the formulation of a task force that eventually helped to expel foreign nationals from hoarding South Africa's mineral and energy resources was the turning point in this case study, and a testament to the efficacy of Mlambo-Ngcuka's leadership. However, both this assessment and the decision point supporting it are contentious because a political and economic climate already existed to achieve the same objective. One can therefore argue either side: that the action Mlambo-Ngcuka took in forming the task force was the catalyst for claiming South Africa's resources from foreign nationals, or that the prevailing political and economic climate was responsible.

The decision point became even more contested when one considers the ancillary factors involved. The decision-maker was Mlambo-Ngcuka; the decision was how best to fulfill the aims of the white paper in giving South Africa control over its fossil fuel resources. Fulfilling those aims was unequivocally her objective. However, when one views this decision in the context of the additional actors involved, the contribution of Mlambo-Ngcuka's task force is inevitably called into question. As noted earlier, other industry proponents shared the same interests as her department. These most prominently included the South African Petroleum Industry Association (SAPIA) and the African Minerals and Energy Forum (AMEF), although virtually every native South African had a vested interest in ridding their country's resources of foreign control.

Those foreign nationals constituted another interested party in this decision, albeit from a directly opposing stance. Their objective was to maintain the status quo regarding South Africa's energy and mineral resources, enabling them to continue monopolizing another country's wealth-producing assets. Finally, there was one other stakeholder: the global political and economic community. The interests of the foreign nationals were largely aligned with this community, many of whose members profited from the exploitation of resources belonging to South Africa's native population. The global community thus supported the efforts of those foreign nationals, whose agenda was directly opposed to that of Mlambo-Ngcuka and the other South African organizations rallying to overthrow foreign influence.

During the first 18 months in office, Mlambo-Ngcuka held a series of meetings with leaders in the energy and minerals fields in South Africa. Specifically, she worked closely with representatives from SAPIA and AMEF. These industry participants shared many of the same values and ideals as Mlambo-Ngcuka regarding the objectives stipulated in the white paper, including the possibility of hosting an industry summit to determine how best to achieve those goals. Ultimately, however, Mlambo-Ngcuka decided to establish a task team from within her ministry to enact regulations in the energy and minerals industries and assert control over natural resources as specified in the White Paper on the Energy Policy of the Republic of South Africa.

It is important to note that many of the energy resources stemmed from fossil fuels, which were particularly abundant in South Africa at this time. The task team appointed by Mlambo-Ngcuka adopted a collaborative framework for discussing ideas related to deregulation and South African solidarity in these two fields. Many of its meetings took the form of "workshops examining the entire liquid fuels petroleum industry in South Africa" (Energy.gov, 2018). These workshops were the means by which task members interacted with others in the industry, and they often involved lengthy, candid discussions about how to achieve the white paper's objectives.

In this respect, the composition of the task team is important to consider. Although males were certainly involved, a significant proportion of those selected by Mlambo-Ngcuka were women — consistent with her background and with the future objectives she was trying to achieve. Some observers may have viewed this as simply an opportunity to balance the scales for gender equality, a perspective that is not only narrow but also fails to account for the full scope of Mlambo-Ngcuka's purpose in selecting her "ministerial task team" (Energy.gov, 2018). Although the White Paper on the Energy Policy of the Republic of South Africa specified no definite time frames, she was still seeking to demonstrate competency in her still relatively new role as Minister of Minerals and Energy, and therefore took the utmost care in assembling her task force.

Furthermore, one could argue that her decision to select a fair number of women for the task force was partially predicated on the nature of the work involved. Regardless of the effect that individual team members had on the overall project, it is worth noting that the team devised an assortment of strategies for South Africa to take ownership of its energy and minerals industries. These measures were largely conceived in response to the specific petroleum-based fuels at stake, including oil and gas, crude oil refining, transportation of petroleum, synthetic fuels manufacturing, and petroleum product marketing (Energy.gov, 2018). These strategies became the basis for what is today known as the Liquid Fuels Empowerment Charter — a direct product of the various workshops Mlambo-Ngcuka's team conducted to determine how to achieve the white paper's goals, and a document that provided a legal foundation for appropriating control over the aforementioned resources.

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