‘S Africa banks should be forced to fund coal mines’

Bloomberg

South Africa’s banks should be forced to invest in new coal mines in the country, the ruling African National Congress’s head of economic transformation said.
Nedbank Group Ltd. and Standard Bank Group Ltd. have said “they are not going to put money in coal any more,” Enoch Godongwana said in an interview on Ca-
rte Blanche, a Johannesburg-based investigative television program. “To me, that’s an invitation for prescribed assets,” he said in a reference to
the party’s investigation of whether to force pension funds to invest in developmental projects.
While Standard Bank and Nedbank, two of the country’s biggest lenders, have said they won’t invest in coal for environmental reasons, South Africa is heavily reliant on the fuel for power generation. The country has 66
billion metric tons of coal reserves, according to Godongwana. Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., the state power utility, has said new mines aren’t being opened quickly enough to ensure supply for its power plants.
“Who determines policy? A government of the day determines policy,” Godongwana said. “You can’t therefore have individuals determine what is the policy of the country.”