Critical minerals in South Africa: A strategic and distributive justice perspective

South Africa is endowed with several critical mineral resources required for renewable energy and to drive the fourth industrial revolution, but it grapples with domestic energy shortages and high unemployment, prompting calls for a mineral strategy that incorporates these challenges. In addition, the country, like many other developing nations, faces the challenge of phasing out dependence on fossil fuels, especially coal, to meet its climate obligations. This study uses a distributive justice approach to explore South Africa’s critical mineral strategy. A desk-based approach is applied to acquire data on recent policy documents, reports from domestic and international non-governmental organisations relevant to South Africa’s critical minerals strategy, and academic literature on critical minerals and the just transition framework, with a special focus on distributive justice. The findings underscore the transitional role that fossil fuel minerals, such as coal, continue to play in meeting the country's domestic energy and economic needs. However, the study recognises the environmental, health, and carbon-lock-in risks associated with prolonged coal dependence and therefore frames coal as a transitional rather than long-term component of South Africa's just energy transition. This helps explain why the mineral is still categorised as a ‘critical’ mineral within South Africa’s current policy framework. The study, therefore, recommends a phased transition to renewable energy sources in line with domestic imperatives. It is further recommended that the wealth from critical minerals is better harnessed to improve infrastructure in mineral-rich regions and host communities, in line with distributive justice.