Just Us and the Climate - Climate Justice Coalition

Young climate activists speak truth to power on education and climate Two teenage climate activists from Cape Town's Black Girls Rising organisation sit down with education law researcher Motheo Brody to expose how climate change is already violating children's right to basic education in South Africa - and what must urgently change. This episode is essential listening for young people, parents, teachers, policymakers, and lawmakers who need to understand that climate adaptation of the basic education system is not optional: it is a legal and moral obligation. Sixteen-year-old Likhanyise and fifteen-year-old Busani describe learning in shipping container classrooms that reach unbearable temperatures, school entrances flooded so badly that learners must bail water with buckets before class can begin, days missed because roads are impassable, and the hidden toll that heat and water shortages take on concentration, health, and exam performance. Their testimony is a ground-level account of what the UNESCO Chair on Education, Law and Africa at the University of Pretoria has confirmed in research: some South African classrooms hit 40 degrees Celsius, and academic performance drops sharply as a result. The episode unpacks the findings of two landmark reports from the UNESCO Chair's Climate Justice in Education project. The first audit of the CAPS curriculum from Grade R to Grade 12 found climate change appears as a topic almost exclusively in Grade 9 Natural Sciences - with no meaningful climate justice perspective, no discussion of gendered impacts, no treatment of inequality or human rights, and no call to action. The second report examines South Africa's constitutional and international legal obligations to climate-proof the basic education system, drawing on the Climate Change Act (commenced March 2025), the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and UN Committee General Comment 26 on children's rights and the environment. Likhanyise and Busani also speak directly to the participation paradox: rights designed for children, made without children. Their challenge to adult decision-makers - lawmakers, curriculum designers, school authorities, and government officials - is clear: include us, speak our language, and stop making decisions on behalf of the people most affected. For anyone who wants to understand what urgent, rights-based climate adaptation of South African schools must look like, and why young people must be at the centre of that process, this conversation is the place to start.

This episode is for young South Africans, policymakers and activists who want an honest, ground-level conversation about how unemployment, the rising cost of living, climate change, and spatial inequality shape the daily realities of youth in townships, farming communities, and urban areas. Hosted by Snako Msi from Project 90 by 2030, this Youth Voices discussion on Just Us and the Climate brings together two young change-makers to speak candidly about what it means to be young in South Africa today - and what it will take to build a more just future. Jasnine Anthony, an agroecology and climate advocacy trainer working with the Social Employment Fund, Good Gedacht Trust and Surplus People Project, and Siya Mzansi, a visual storyteller and green economy ambassador from Khayelitsha, share lived experiences that cut to the heart of South Africa's socio-economic crisis. The conversation covers how corruption shapes perceptions of the economy, why spatial inequality means youth in farming areas and townships face fundamentally different barriers to opportunity than those in suburbs, and how the lack of mentorship, accessible information and transportation compounds unemployment. The episode explores how commercialised systems have replaced traditional sustainable practices, why agroecology offers a practical pathway to food security and community resilience, and how climate change - including chemical spraying by commercial farmers and dam failures causing floods - hits marginalised communities hardest even when residents have never heard the term. Listeners will hear a sharp critique of competitive models in social impact work and a compelling call for collaboration and unity among youth-led organisations. Practical themes include: using libraries, creative hubs and community resource centres as entry points; advocating for information in accessible mother-tongue language; the importance of public spaces for civic communication; and why youth-to-youth conversation builds the confidence that formal spaces often destroy. Recorded on International Youth Day, this episode closes with a call for young people to unite, collaborate across different skills and lived experiences, and claim their rightful place in decisions that shape South Africa's future.

Who gets to decide what South Africa’s green industrial future looks like? And what happens when communities, workers, and activists are placed at the centre of that vision? In this episode, host Shaazia Ebrahim speaks with Tara Nair van Ryneveld and Motlatsi Makhasane about new research from the Climate Justice Coalition’s Economic Justice Working Group that explores bottom-up approaches to green industrialisation rooted in climate justice, democratic ownership, decent livelihoods, and ecological sustainability.

South Africa is experiencing a water paradox. Communities in KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern and Western Cape have lost homes and loved ones to devastating floods, while members in communities across Mpumalanga, Gauteng and the Free State struggle with contaminated water, failing infrastructure, and chronic shortages. In this episode, we explore what it means to be "drowning while thirsting" and how climate change, inequality, and failing public infrastructure are reshaping everyday life. Through stories from affected communities, we examine who bears the burden of South Africa's water crisis and what water justice could look like. This podcast is hosted by Nomfundo Mkaba (Omama Bemvelo) was has lived through the floods in KwaZulu-Natal in 2022 with guests Tshidiso Monare (West Rand Community Association) and Ncamiso Mnisi (Carolina Eco Green), who are facing water shortages in Bekkersdal, Gauteng, and contaminated water in Carolina, Mpumalanga, respectively.

In this episode, we explore a new legal advisory report produced for the South African BDS Coalition, examining South Africa’s obligations in relation to the continued export of coal to Israel. Sunny Morgan of the PSA South Africa hosts SA BDS Coalition's Roshan Dadoo, and lawyer and author of the report, Sirhaan Ché Khan in discussion. Grounded in international law, constitutional principles, and the lived realities of Palestinians, the conversation unpacks how decades of dispossession, occupation, and systemic violence intersect with global systems of trade and energy. We ask what it means for South Africa to move beyond symbolic solidarity, and whether economic activity, including coal exports, can amount to complicity in ongoing international crimes. The report at the centre of this discussion argues that South Africa has both the legal authority and the constitutional duty to act. It highlights how existing legislation enables the state to regulate and even prohibit exports in the public interest, raising urgent questions about accountability, coherence, and political will. As calls grow for the South African government to halt coal exports to Israel, activists argue that such trade contributes to Israel’s energy supply and, by extension, its military capacity. This episode situates that demand within a broader climate justice and global solidarity framework, where energy, law, and justice are deeply intertwined.