S. Africa’s Zuma to Represent Belarus at Carbon Credits Meet

Ray Ndlovu and Antony Sguazzin
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(Bloomberg) -- Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s former president, will represent Belarus at a Zimbabwe conference on the trade in African carbon credits, according to the organizers of the event.

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Zuma, who was seen entering the event venue in Victoria Falls, is due to deliver a “special presentation” on behalf of the Belarusian African Foreign Trade Association, of which he is a board member, on Friday, according to the agenda of the Africa Voluntary Carbon Credits Market Forum.

BAFTA “is a platform for companies and businesses in the eastern part of Europe which want to partner Africa,” Kwanele Hlabangana, the chairman of the AVCCM, said at the conference. “He has come in his capacity as a climate ambassador, but is representing that organization.”

Zuma, apart from presiding over an UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2011, has no known track record in the carbon credits industry but had close ties with Russia, an ally of Belarus, during his nine-year rule. His daughter, Duduzile Sambudla-Zuma was placed at the center of a Russia-backed Twitter campaign to bolster support for its invasion of Ukraine, according to research commissioned and funded by the Centre for Information Resilience.

During Zuma’s rule South Africa also halted a highly successful government program to foster private investment in renewable energy and unsuccessfully pursued a plan to have Russian companies build a nuclear power plant in the country.

The event in Victoria Falls has so far drawn African participants from Malawi, South Africa, Kenya and Zambia. There are also delegates from the US, UK, Germany, Estonia and the Czech Republic.

A spokesman for Zuma didn’t answer a phone call or respond to a text message seeking comment. The former president is facing a corruption trial in South Africa, related to a state arms deal. He has denied wrongdoing.

The organizers are also hosting John Hlophe, who was suspended as the top judge of South Africa’s Western Cape province, the agenda shows. Calls to Hlophe’s lawyer weren’t answered.

Hlophe, who was suspended for gross misconduct for trying to pressure judges to rule in favor of Zuma in a court case, has denied the allegations.

Zimbabwe has close ties with Belarus. President Alexander Lukashenko visited the African nation earlier this year amid pledges of agricultural and industrial investments. Russia, Belarus and Zimbabwe are sanctioned by the US.

(Updates from third paragraph with comments from carbon association chairman in third paragraph)

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