Green energy for all: Zimbabwe will need a new social contract to roll out projects like solar power

The Zimbabwean government is racing against time to meet the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 7: affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030. However, the race towards green energy is top-down and mostly privatised. New technology is being introduced or sold to individuals or small families, but renewable energy is not being made part of a decent life for the entire community. Sustainable transitions researchers Ellen Fungisai Chipango and Long Seng To have researched ways to use the communal ethic of African ubuntu, expressed as “a person is a person through other persons”, in the rollout of renewable energy.

What are the competing views of sustainable development?

Zimbabwe’s National Renewable Energy Policy aims to promote investment in the uptake of renewable energy technologies, especially off-grid solutions in rural areas. Both private sector independent power producers in the solar sector and development agencies have set up some renewable energy projects in the rural areas.

The elite view: Government authorities, international development agencies, non-governmental organisations and experts are inclined to the “western” and modernist view of sustainable development. This reduces progress to that which can be measured by tools and indicators. It overlooks local knowledge and human interdependence. This further marginalises indigenous knowledge, creating room for the continued domination of the western models of sustainable development.

View from the grassroots: Contrary to the elitist view, communities argue that sustainable development must be ubuntu-centric. That is, it must be part of a life lived in harmony and cooperation for the welfare of others. As one participant in our study said:

Where did you test your ideas?

We conducted research between 2016 and 2022 with 13 people in the Zingondi Resettlement Area, east Zimbabwe. We interviewed power utility employees, energy ministry officials, non-governmental organisation staff and smallholder farmers.

Each home has three hectares of land and the residents depend on smallholder farming. Most families live in thatched mud houses and are dependent on fuelwood for heating. Those who have family working abroad and sending money home can afford to buy solar lanterns. But those who don’t, cannot. When renewable energy is only available to people who can pay, this increases inequality in the community, which undermines local practices of ubuntu.

Read more: Global energy targets don't deal with people's real problems in Zimbabwe

The smallholder farmers we interviewed believed that the rollout of sustainable development goal seven would fail if it was not backed by social and political engagement with the community. As one participant said:

Another participant asked why the community was suffering in poverty and living without clean, basic energy when Zimbabwe is a mineral rich country and these minerals could be sold by the state to cover the costs of energy for all.

Participants also lamented being voiceless in the political process and decision-making. When asked whether the sustainable development goal was achievable, one participant said: “If there is a transparent leadership which is not corrupt.” Others said that fuelwood remained the only reliable source of energy because it was always available and not affected by regular power cuts.

What did you conclude?

Sustainable development means different things to people in different settings. It has been criticised for not being community driven or controlled, and for placing emphasis on the individual. The rural citizens we interviewed described sustainable development as “a fraud” for addressing problems superficially without overturning the status quo of inequality and poverty.

Ubuntu (ism) could shape sustainable energy development if it prioritised energy for all. Without an ubuntu-centric approach, private renewable energy companies provide energy only for individuals who can afford to pay for it. This prioritises profit over community wellbeing.

What needs to change?

A social contract is needed: New ways of doing, thinking and organising the transition to renewable energy are needed. A social contract between government, the international community and organisations, labour, business and citizens would be useful. This social contract should be based on ubuntu, instead of privately sold energy.

A social contract would address the failure of the elite and the government to care for rural people and provide them with clean energy, even if they could not afford it. Under an ubuntu-informed social contract, if the government did not provide a free energy cushion for those most in need, it would be seen as bringing shame upon itself.

Read more: The search for Ubuntu in Africa's corporate landscape

Appropriation of power: Renewable energy, particularly solar power, must be delivered by a responsible government which should see to it that its citizens have access to clean and affordable energy. As ubuntu and corruption are incompatible, the government needs to implement ubuntu as public policy.

The private sector should not be in charge of the transition to renewable energy. In Zimbabwe, private power producers’ interests are protected. They are given financial guarantees and guaranteed tariffs by the government before they invest the money to build solar plants. Impoverished energy consumers are left at the mercy of the market and may have to pay unaffordable energy rates.

Production: The more local level solar systems there are that can feed energy back into the grid, the easier it will be to set up virtual power plants. These are not huge solar plants that cost hundreds of millions of US dollars to build. A virtual power plant is a collection of energy “prosumers” (electricity consumers who produce some of their own energy that they can feed into the national grid).

The virtual power plants need to be set up on the basis of non-profit, ubuntu-centred values where sharing energy is the main goal. This will create a sense of togetherness, cooperative participation, mutual aid and action for another’s sake.