Iziko Labantsundu, For Energy Justice
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About the institute

An institute for the knowledge and terms of energy justice.

Iziko Labantsundu is an independent South African research institute. We work where energy policy, African languages and indigenous practice meet, producing terminology, evidence and public argument that communities, unions, municipalities and regulators can all use.

Intellectual lineage

Record of formation
  1. 1884

    The vernacular press and the argued public

    The founding of an independent isiXhosa-language press establishes the position we still work from: that serious argument about land, labour and the public good is conducted with attribution, in print, and on the record.

  2. 2019

    Working group on terminology and the transition

    Translators, engineers and shop stewards begin meeting around a single problem: the just transition is being drafted in a vocabulary most of the people affected by it cannot use.

  3. 2023

    Iziko Labantsundu constituted

    The institute is formally established as a non-profit research body with three pillars and a standing publications programme.

  4. 2026

    CLICK opens in three provinces

    Climate Language Integration & Community Knowledge begins its first full cycle with partner municipalities, unions and universities.

Mandate

We do not translate energy policy. We build the conditions under which energy policy can be written, contested and decided in African languages in the first place.

Status
Independent non-profit research institute
Seat
Johannesburg, with field offices in Emalahleni and Makhanda
Focus
Energy justice, indigenous knowledge and African languages
Governance
Board of nine, including two community-nominated seats and one labour seat
People participating in an institute gathering

How we work

Every project runs the same way: convened with the people who hold the knowledge, conducted in their language, minuted, and published under named authorship. Knowledge holders are cited as authors, not as sources.

Our outputs are deliberately citable, numbered, dated, versioned and openly licensed, because recognition in policy and law depends on being able to point to a record.