Maesela Kekana, now the head of the South African delegation after the firing of Dion George, at COP30 in Belém, Brazil on Monday, 17 November 2025. (Photo: Dianah Chiyangwa) 
Amid the high-stakes climate negotiations at COP30 in Brazil, Maesela Kekana, now the head of the South African delegation, confirmed that the talks were running in a parallel process this week: technical discussions continuing alongside ministerial consultations focused on issues requiring political guidance.
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Day-1-Pic-1-1.jpg "The sun sets in Belém, Brazil, at the COP30 venue after thunderstorms hit the city and affected the venue, on 17 November 2025. (Photo: Kristin Engel)")
But Kekana – who is the deputy director-general of climate change and air quality management in the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment – noted that the process was moving more slowly than anticipated.
On the sidelines of sessions in the Blue Zone on Monday, Kekana said the talks were not moving “fast enough”.
The slow pace is evident as issues meant to conclude in the first week spill into the second. These include negotiations on the four contentious agenda items, particularly the agenda action plan, which the delegation was surprised to see had not been concluded last week because it is closely tied to resourcing and finance issues.
Despite the abrupt changes to their delegation with the departure of former minister Dion George and no official political head leading South Africa at COP, Kekana said the technical teams continued their mandate and were absorbing any “shocks” they could.
“The team is continuing with their work. They were always going to continue with their work… I’m the head of delegation, and I continue to give guidance to the team. And as I talk to you now, the team is highly engaged in various agenda items and also providing necessary support to the African ministers,” said Kekana.
As Africa, he said, they tried to organise our ministers, so they had a set of ministers following a particular issue, and they had a set of negotiators briefing them daily at 9am.
“We support them in their consultations,” Kekana said.
“But, of course, we still participate in the technical discussions themselves. South Africa is also co-facilitating other technical issues, such as mitigation, such as the transparency issues and the finance issues. So, it’s going to be a hectic week. It is already a hectic week, as you can see. But all is on track. We are still negotiating as a bloc.”
“We are not here just for the technical negotiations. We also participate in events that will bring opportunities to South Africa,” said Kekana.
One example was South Africa’s participation in the Clean Air Coalition, where they managed to participate successfully in the roundtable to a point where the allocation of funding from that coalition was increased from $5-million to $7-million to tackle issues of air quality at home.
But in terms of the negotiations for South Africa, Kekana repeated what he said at a stakeholder consultation in Pretoria before COP, “The big issue is the adaptation talk. We need to see a successful conclusion to the issue of adaptation framework.”
MPs arrive in Belém, back Kekana to lead South Africa
A South African parliamentary delegation was sent to the ongoing COP in Belém, primarily to fulfil Parliament's constitutional role of oversight of the executive.
Speaking on the sidelines of the summit on Tuesday, they fully backed Kekana to lead South Africa in the negotiations.
EFF MP Nazier Paulsen and DA MP Andrew de Blocq – both members of the parliamentary committee on forestry, fisheries and environment — said that their mandate at the summit was to observe the negotiations to ensure the government’s negotiating team was performing its job and to understand the positions held by different regions and countries.
This oversight prepares Parliament to implement the negotiated outcomes upon the return to South Africa. But, as Daily Maverick has reported, the COP process has been complicated by the rather unceremonious removal of former minister George at the beginning of the conference, an event that dented the morale of the negotiating team and raised concerns about South Africa's standing and political negotiating power.
Despite this leadership vacuum, the negotiating team, led by Kekana, is considered capable and competent. Paulsen and De Blocq had just been briefed by the DFFE when they spoke to Daily Maverick.
De Blocq said, “They’re hoping that most of the negotiating will be wrapped up by Wednesday, so we’ve still got 48 hours to achieve what we want to at this COP… I have full confidence in DG Kekana, he’s been a stalwart for many, many years, and he has the mandate from the President directly.”
Paulsen commented on Africa’s role as a minor greenhouse gas emitter. “Africa as a whole is responsible for less than 4% of greenhouse gas emissions, so it’s very important that we are here, that we make sure that we are not being bullied by larger economies, larger nations into an unjust transition as opposed to a just transition,” said Paulsen.
“We are the ones that are able to consider alternative means of energy generation, being largely our baseload’s coal, so we also have to make sure that we don’t adversely affect our economy further by transitioning to alternate power sources too soon. So it’s very important that we are here. Also, because we are also not the largest greenhouse gas emitters.”
Speaking on how the recent change in minister had affected the negotiating team and South African delegation at COP, Paulsen said: “The morale of the team has been dented at the moment. The rather unceremonious removal of a minister at the beginning of a conference is really not ideal. But I think largely the negotiating team … are more than capable and competent of representing South Africa’s needs.”
Timing of George firing threatens SA’s global climate agenda
Meanwhile, civil society organisations in South Africa have written an open letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa about the absence of formal ministerial representation at the talks in Belém, and ahead of the G20 Summit this weekend.
They believe this absence and the timing of the minister’s removal – in the middle of COP30 – risk undermining South Africa’s critical leadership role in climate action on the African continent and globally, limiting its ability to influence policy decisions on mitigation, adaptation, climate finance and the Just Energy Transition.
Read more: Can SA maintain its climate influence without its environment minister at COP30?
“Given the growing centrality of environmental policy to global economic and diplomatic agendas, the timing of this decision could weaken South Africa’s ability to project consistency or the seriousness of its climate commitments,” they wrote. DM
Kristin Engel is a freelance environmental journalist and a Danida Fellow participating in the Danida Fellowship Centre’s 2025 learning programme, “Reporting from the front line of the global climate crisis in an era of fake news”. The centre is a public self-governing institution under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark.