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Human Rights and Energy in a Neoliberal Southern Africa

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Human Rights and the Environment under African Union Law

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Abstract

Legal critique of renewable energy projects, such as mega dam construction and biofuel production for energy provisions in Southern Africa, highlights a crooked balancing act between the modern neoliberal desires for maximum power generation for industry and private enterprises juxtaposed with a deliberate lack of effective legal and policy frameworks for the protection of the human rights, developmental and environmental justice aspirations of rural and less powerful sectors of the community. The chapter argues that a critical assessment of historical and contemporary energy planning in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and other regions of the Global South exposes violations of human and developmental rights as well as environmental injustice. Lessons from the impact of neoliberalism and pro-business energy projects will be vital for the Global South. The chapter utilises critical theoretical approaches to law and employs an interdisciplinary analysis of primary information, academic and practitioner commentary. This analysis is beefed up by an environmental justice and human rights-based framing.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    PM Fearnside, ‘Environmental and Social Impacts of Hydroelectric Dams in Brazilian Amazonia: Implications for the Aluminium Industry.’ (2016) 77 World Development 57.

  2. 2.

    ibid.

  3. 3.

    See RE Mazur, ‘Realization or deprivation of the right to development under globalization? Debt, structural adjustment, and poverty reduction programs.’ (2004) 60 (1) GeoJournal 61.

  4. 4.

    See Arjun Sengupta, ‘On the Theory and Practice of the Right to Development.’ (2002) 24 Human Rights Quarterly 837.

  5. 5.

    Richard Heinberg, Afterburn: Society Beyond Fossil Fuels (New Society Publishers 2015) 47.

  6. 6.

    See OJ Kuik, MB Lima and J Gupta, ‘Energy security in a developing world.’ (2011) 2 (4) Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change 627.

  7. 7.

    TM Mashingaidze, ‘Beyond the Kariba Dam Induced Displacements: The Zimbabwean Tonga’s Struggles for Restitution, 1990s–2000s.’ (2013) 20 International Journal on Minority and Group Rights 381.

  8. 8.

    ibid.

  9. 9.

    JCRA, Whitepaper on Renewable energy in sub-Saharan Africa (Cebr and JCRA 2018) 8. https://jcragroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Renewable-energy-in-sub-Saharan-Africa_FINAL.pdf accessed 07 September 2018.

  10. 10.

    Okbazghi Yohannes, ‘Hydro-politics in the Nile Basin: in search of theory beyond realism and neo-liberalism,’ (2009) 3 (1) Journal of Eastern African Studies 74, 87.

  11. 11.

    See, for instance, A Moyo, ‘Investors target energy sector.’ The Sunday Mail (Harare 18 February 2018).

  12. 12.

    See A Isaacman, ‘Displaced People, Displaced Energy, and Displaced Memories: The Case of Cahora Bassa, 1970–2004.’ (2005) 38 (2) The International Journal of African Historical Studies 201.

  13. 13.

    See P Muhonda, ‘Analysis of institutional mechanisms that support community response to impacts of floods in the Middle-Zambezi river basin, Zimbabwe.’ (2014) 76–78 Physics and Chemistry of the Earth 64.

  14. 14.

    See SH Ali, ‘Water Scarcity and Institutional Reform in Southern Africa.’ (1999) 24 (2) Water International 116.

  15. 15.

    Franklin Obeng-Odoom aptly captures the concept of neoliberalism and market approaches to the environment in Africa in ‘Green neoliberalism: Recycling and sustainable urban development in Sekondi-Takoradi’ (2014) 41 Habitat International 129–134; See also B Büscher, ‘Anti-Politics as Political Strategy: Neoliberalism and Transfrontier Conservation in Southern Africa.’ (2010) 41 (1) Development and Change 29–51;

  16. 16.

    D Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism (Oxford University Press 2007) p. 2.

  17. 17.

    Obeng-Odoom (n 15) 129.

  18. 18.

    A Schulz, ‘Creating a Legal Framework for Good Transboundary Water Governance in the Zambezi and Incomati River Basins.’ (2007) 19 (2) Georgetown International Environmental Law Review 117, at 118.

  19. 19.

    Eric T Hoddya and Jonathan E. Ensorb, ‘Brazil’s landless movement and rights “from below”,’ (2018) 63 Journal of Rural Studies 74–82.

  20. 20.

    J McGregor, ‘Crocodile crimes: people versus wildlife and the politics of postcolonial conservation on Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe.’ (2005) 36 Geoforum, 353 at 360.

  21. 21.

    KM Kanene, ‘Indigenous practices of environmental sustainability in the Tonga community of southern Zambia.’ (2016) 8 (1) Jàmbá: Journal of Disaster Risk Studies a331. https://doi.org/10.4102/jamba.v8i1.331.

  22. 22.

    L Artur and D Hilhorst, ‘Floods, resettlement and land access and use in the Lower Zambezi, Mozambique.’ (2014) 36 Land Use Policy 361, at 367.

  23. 23.

    See, for instance, Clapperton Chakanetsa Mavhunga, ‘Energy, Industry, and Transport in South-Central Africa’s History’ in CC Mavhunga and H Trischler (eds), Energy (and) Colonialism, Energy (In)Dependence: Africa, Europe, Greenland, North America (RCC Perspectives 2014/5).

  24. 24.

    BK Sovacool and LC Bulan, ‘Behind an ambitious mega project in Asia: The history and implications of the Bakun hydroelectric dam in Borneo.’ (2011) 39 Energy Policy, 4587.

  25. 25.

    K Mcafee, ‘Green economy and carbon markets for conservation and development: a critical view’ (2016) 16 (3) International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, p. 333.

  26. 26.

    Yohannes (n 10) 77.

  27. 27.

    D Biello, ‘The Dam Building Boom: Right Path to Clean Energy?’ Yale Environment 360 (New Haven 23 February 2009).

  28. 28.

    ibid.

  29. 29.

    See SA Subedi, International Investment Law: Reconciling Policy and Principle (3rd edn, Hart Publishing 2016).

  30. 30.

    See R Southall, ‘The Poverty of the “Middle Classing” Of Development: Key Problems in Southern Africa.’ (2017) 39 (1) Strategic Review for Southern Africa 211.

  31. 31.

    ibid.

  32. 32.

    CC Ngang, ‘Towards a right-to-development governance in Africa.’ (2018) 17 (1) Journal of Human Rights 110.

  33. 33.

    Observations by the author in a visit to Binga District, Zimbabwe in 2017.

  34. 34.

    See Mazur (n 3).

  35. 35.

    TM Mashingaidze, ‘Beyond the Kariba Dam Induced Displacements: The Zimbabwean Tonga’s Struggles for Restitution, 1990s–2000s.’ (2013) 20 International Journal on Minority and Group Rights 381, at 382.

  36. 36.

    Carol Hunsberger, Esteve Corbera, Saturnino M. Borras Jr., Jennifer C. Franco, Kevin Woods, Courtney Work, Romulo de la Rosa, Vuthy Eang, Roman Herre, Sai Sam Kham, Clara Park, Seng Sokheng, Max Spoor, Shwe Thein, Kyaw Thu Aung, Ratha Thuon and Chayan Vaddhanaphuti, ‘Climate change mitigation, land grabbing and conflict: towards a landscape-based and collaborative action research agenda.’ (2017) 38 (3) Canadian Journal of Development Studies 305–324.

  37. 37.

    Schulz (n 18) at 168.

  38. 38.

    See B Büscher, ‘Investing in Irony? Development, Improvement and Dispossession in Southern African Coal Spaces.’ (2015) 27 European Journal of Development Research 727.

  39. 39.

    See M Gwisai, ‘Theory and Practice of Liberal Democracy in the Post-Colonial State in Africa: The Zimbabwe Experience.’ (1991–1992) 9–10 The Zimbabwe Law Review 110.

  40. 40.

    P Anthias and SA Radcliffe, ‘The ethno-environmental fix and its limits: Indigenous land titling and the production of not-quite-neoliberal natures in Bolivia.’ (2015) 64 Geoforum, 257 at 260.

  41. 41.

    Revised Protocol on Shared Watercourses in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) (adopted 7 August 2000).

  42. 42.

    ibid., art 2 (3).

  43. 43.

    Consolidated Text of the Treaty of the Southern African Development Community (adopted 17 August 1992, entered into force 05 October 1992) (SADC Treaty).

  44. 44.

    ibid., art 5 (1) (a).

  45. 45.

    SA Subedi, International Investment Law: Reconciling Policy and Principle (3rd Ed) (Oxford and Portland, Oregon: Hart Publishing, 2016), p. 46.

  46. 46.

    M Hanson and JJ Hentz, ‘Neocolonialism and Neoliberalism in South Africa and Zambia’ (1999) 114 (3) Political Science Quarterly 479, p. 501.

  47. 47.

    See ibid., art 12 (1).

  48. 48.

    Action Plan for the Environmentally Sound Management of the Common Zambezi River System.

  49. 49.

    See Annex I. To the agreement on the action plan for the environmentally sound management of the Common Zambezi River system, art 14.

  50. 50.

    Annex II. To the agreement on the action plan for the environmentally sound management of the common Zambezi river system, art 12.

  51. 51.

    Front for the Liberation of Mozambique.

  52. 52.

    E Lunstrum, ‘Mozambique, Neoliberal Land Reform, and the Limpopo National Park.’ (2008) 98 (3) The Geographical Review 339.

  53. 53.

    RJE van Den Brink, ‘Land Reform in Mozambique.’ (2008) 43 Agriculture & Rural Development Notes: Land Policy and Administration https://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTARD/Resources/336681-1295878311276/WB_ARD_Mzmbq_Note43_web.pdf accessed 20 June 2018.

  54. 54.

    See, for instance, Articles 2 (1), 96 (1) and 101 (1) of the Constitution of the Republic of Mozambique.

  55. 55.

    Mozambique’s Constitution of 2004 with Amendments through 2007.

  56. 56.

    Ibid., art 109.

  57. 57.

    AF Isaacman BS and Isaacman, Dams, Displacement, and the Delusion of Development: Cahora Bassa and Its Legacies in Mozambique , 1965–2007 (Athens, Ohio University Press, 2013), p. 4.

  58. 58.

    Constitution of the Republic of Mozambique, Art 97.

  59. 59.

    See M Gwisai (n 39).

  60. 60.

    Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No 20) Act 2013, sec 18.

  61. 61.

    [Chapter 20:27].

  62. 62.

    [Chapter 10:06].

  63. 63.

    [Chapter 20:14].

  64. 64.

    Muhonda (n 13) at 71.

  65. 65.

    GJ Williams, ‘The changing electrical power industry of the middle Zambezi Valley.’ (1984) 69 (3) Geography 257.

  66. 66.

    The federation consisted of Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and Nyasaland (now Malawi).

  67. 67.

    A Isaacman, ‘Displaced People, Displaced Energy, and Displaced Memories: The Case of Cahora Bassa, 1970–2004.’ (2005) 38 (2) The International Journal of African Historical Studies 201, pp. 201–202.

  68. 68.

    F Eguren, ‘Socialism in the Twenty-First Century and Neo-liberalism: Diverse Ideological Options Do Not Always Generate Different Effects’ in G Carbonnier et al. (eds), Alternative Pathways to Sustainable Development: Lessons from Latin America (Brill, 2017), p. 124.

  69. 69.

    A Arnall, ‘A climate of control: flooding, displacement and planned resettlement in the Lower Zambezi River valley, Mozambique.’ (2014) 180 (2) The Geographical Journal 141, at 146.

  70. 70.

    AF Isaacman and D Morton, ‘Harnessing the Zambezi: How Mozambique’s Planned Mphanda Nkuwa Dam Perpetuates the Colonial Past.’ (2012) 45 (2) The International Journal of African Historical Studies 157.

  71. 71.

    Isaacman (n 57).

  72. 72.

    See J Franco et al., ‘The Global Politics of Water Grabbing’ (2013) 34 (9) Third World Quarterly 1651.

  73. 73.

    See Beth Osnes, ‘Engaging women’s voices through theatre for energy development.’ (2013) 49 Renewable Energy 185.

  74. 74.

    Mazur (n 3) 69.

  75. 75.

    Fearnside (n 1) 60.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Advocates4Earth, Harare, Zimbabwe

    Lenin Tinashe Chisaira

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  1. Lenin Tinashe Chisaira
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  1. Research Institute of Environmental Law, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China

    Michael Addaney

  2. Department of Public Law, University of Venda, Thohoyandou, South Africa

    Ademola Oluborode Jegede

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Chisaira, L.T. (2020). Human Rights and Energy in a Neoliberal Southern Africa. In: Addaney, M., Oluborode Jegede, A. (eds) Human Rights and the Environment under African Union Law. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46523-0_16

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