The results of our study allow us to make the following set of conclusions. First, that the process of infrastructure deployment in South Africa still lacks consistent institutional mechanism for stakeholders’ engagement and public participation. Review of infrastructure projects showed that stakeholders’ engagement and public participation is organized to provide feedback on the results of environmental impact assessment, mainly. It also often takes place on ad hoc basis as a way to address conflict, which has already emerged, hence in a reactive in opposition to preventive and proactive manner.
Most of the projects showed lacking institutional structure for public participation.
Second, even being organized at the time when conflict already emerged, public participation still helps to address concerns and to make conflicts less dramatic, helping to achieve a compromise and acceptance of the project. Energy transition is an area which is prone to conflicts as there are many concerns among organized stakeholders and inhabitants of affected communities. Most of these concerns are about the need for the project to take into account different available electricity generation technologies, transparency of decision-making processes at national and regional level, which then are impacting local governance level and communities. The need to also take into consideration the impacts from electricity infrastructure projects on local communities, such as visibility impacts, impacts on human health from different electricity generation technologies, like coal, oil, gas or even nuclear, impacts on local environment and
At the same time there is also vivid discussion about benefits from energy transition, such as mitigation of climate change or energy security, which are usually perceived at the global or national level; and risks and costs of infrastructure deployment for local communities, which are usually perceived at the local level. Therefore, public participation involving inhabitants of affected communities is essential for deployment of electricity infrastructure. For instance, example of Europe shows that public opposition might delay deployment of electricity infrastructure projects for several years or even lead to their cancellation. Furthermore, participation showed itself to be one of the most efficient ways to address concerns about deployment of new electricity infrastructure projects and upgrading of the existing infrastructure.
Third, the level of provision of information and consultation are the two most frequent levels of public participation. Usually they include public consultations on environmental impact assessment, public information meetings and providing materials. This is the level, which is also most frequently observed in planning of electricity generation and transmission projects in Europe and is even higher than the most frequent level of participation in other regions, like the Middle East and North African region. As most of the concerns during the process of deployment of electricity infrastructure projects appear on the need of the project, the lack of information about planning criteria of the projects or outcomes of the results of environmental impact assessment, we might conclude that such level might be also sufficient for planning of electricity infrastructure projects in South Africa.
Forth, the results show that land use issues and questions about benefits and impacts from projects on local communities are the most frequent concerns. This is an important conclusion for energy transition as renewable energy installations, like concentrating solar power or photovoltaic, require significant land resources for their deployment. Without being addressed, the land use issues might lead to further conflicts during deployment of renewable energy installations and can become a barrier for further deployment of the projects.
The overreaching conclusion is that developing an effective participatory mechanisms into infrastructure projects has an impact in the way they are perceived and accepted by the communities and end-users. Hence, the authors recommend the implementation of participatory governance principles for infrastructure projects aimed at transformation of
mechanisms for decision making should be included from the conception and planning of infrastructure projects through to project end, and there needs to be clear allocation of funding to foster public involvement in all phases of the project cycle. The public should have the chance to buy-in into the project, be provided the space to participate in decision making and to enjoy its subsequent benefits.
Different levels and stages of the project require differentiated levels of participation bearing in mind the ladder of citizen participation. Fostering public participation requires skilled leadership equipped with a new mindset based on the ecological paradigm, mentioned earlier. Environmental leadership should be capable of inspiring effective and efficient infrastructure projects aiming to transform the way energy is produced, transformed, distributed, used, and managed.
Taking the above recommendations into account while developing and implementing infrastructure projects in the transformation of South African energy sector towards renewable energy will lead to effective participation and improve pro-activeness to deal with the emergence of conflicts, costly delays, as well as to manage public expectations, foster public acceptance and support, build good will and spirit of collaboration and trust, and increase the likelihood for effective energy infrastructure project development.
To deepen our understanding of public perception to public participation in specific energy infrastructure projects and assess the level of environmental leadership and participation within the sector, more research needs to be undertaken. This would involve in-depth interviews with the major actors and stakeholders of the energy sector, including consumers and the general public. This may allow the development of a model for public participation in the governance of the transformation of South African energy system.
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