south africas energy minister was accused of failing to back the countrys energy transition on sunday after he snubbed a billiondollar green hydrogen deal launched in partnership with the netherlands and denmark the countrys biggest opposition party said energy minister gwede mantashe had not signed an agreement on the fund which was approved and launched anyway on tuesday south africa is facing a power crisis with scheduled outages that last up to 12 hours a day and the move has sparked a renewed debate on the transition to cleaner energy the transition has been mired with infighting among the government which has a long history of support from labour unions representing mine workers according to south africas sunday times newspaper mantashe said he refused to sign a memorandum of understanding on the deal the opposition democratic alliance said it was unacceptable and called for the ministers removal from office mantashes recent decision to snub the toplevel meeting with european leaders to launch a europeanfunded greenenergy initiative is deeply concerning the party said we cannot afford a recalcitrant and ideologically compromised minister at the helm of the energy portfolio it added accusing mantashe of hindering the muchneeded rapid and just energy transition despite being invited mantashe did not attend the deals launch at business forum in pretoria opting to attend a separate energy summit hosted by a leading trade union federation energy ministry spokesman nathi shabangu told afp the ministers absence did not signal his disagreement with the deal insisting that he simply did not sign because he had not seen the mou he could not sign on what he had not seen the blended finance fund will accelerate the development of a green hydrogen sector and circular economy the presidents office said earlier this week mantashe has in the past been vocal in his support for the coal lobby saying last year that ditching coal too quickly was not in the countrys best interests citing economic damage and job losses since 2021 south africa which is one of the worlds top 12 carbon emitters has secured billions of dollars in international loans and grants to support a green transition the coalrich but energystarved country generates about 80 percent of its electricity through coal relying on 15 ageing coalfired power plants