…As Calls Grow for South Africa to Give Security Guarantees

African governments, companies and campaign groups are being urged to reconsider participation in Cape Town unless Pretoria provides clear assurances for African delegates

Mounting Pressure on Pretoria

Pressure is mounting on South Africa to give firm security guarantees ahead of African Energy Week 2026, as campaigners, businesses and political voices across the continent raise concerns over the safety of African delegates travelling to Cape Town for one of the continent’s largest energy gatherings.

African Energy Week, organised by the African Energy Chamber, is scheduled to take place in Cape Town from October 12 to 16. The conference has become a major meeting point for African governments, national oil companies, international operators, financiers, service firms and dealmakers involved in oil, gas, power and energy infrastructure.

But the event is now being drawn into a wider continental debate over xenophobic violence, anti-migrant sentiment and South Africa’s responsibility to protect Africans who travel to the country for business, investment and professional engagements.

Boycott Calls Gather Momentum

Groups pushing for a boycott argue that African institutions, companies and governments cannot continue to support major events in South Africa without a clear public commitment from Pretoria that African delegates will be protected.

Their message is direct: South Africa cannot benefit from African attendance, African capital and African institutional legitimacy while failing to confront violence and hostility directed at Africans within its borders.

“Silence in the face of injustice is not neutrality; it is complicity,” one campaign message circulating among boycott advocates said.

The calls have put AEW’s organisers in a difficult position. The event is not responsible for South Africa’s domestic security challenges, but campaigners say its size, profile and economic value give it unusual leverage.

They argue that the African Energy Chamber should formally demand security assurances from the South African government, including a public statement welcoming African delegates, visible policing around conference venues and hotels, a rapid-response protocol for incidents involving foreign participants, and diplomatic coordination with African embassies.

Climate Groups Join Relocation Campaign

The pressure campaign has also widened beyond concerns over xenophobia.

Climate and anti-fossil-fuel campaigners, including groups aligned with global movements such as Fridays for Future, Just Stop Oil, 350.org, Extinction Rebellion and Greenpeace, are being urged to back calls for the conference to be relocated.

Critics of AEW have long described the event as a platform for Africa’s oil and gas industry and a lobbying space for continued fossil fuel investment.

Some campaigners are now attempting to merge two lines of opposition: one focused on South Africa’s treatment of African migrants, and another focused on the role of oil and gas in Africa’s development agenda.

Delegates, sponsors and speakers are being encouraged to withhold financial support unless South Africa gives firm guarantees. The proposed alternative venues being discussed by critics include Rwanda, Morocco, Ghana and London.

Sponsors and Speakers Face Pressure

The threat is significant because AEW depends heavily on the participation of African governments, national energy companies, indigenous operators, service providers, financiers and international investors.

If major African companies, ministers, speakers or sponsors withdraw, it could weaken the conference’s commercial value, reduce deal flow and damage Cape Town’s standing as a host city for major continental business events.

For a conference built around dealmaking, ministerial engagement, investment announcements, project promotion and high-level networking, the withdrawal of major African delegations would be damaging.

It could also create uncertainty for sponsors and companies that use AEW to position themselves in Africa’s upstream, gas, power, local content and energy transition markets.

Supporters Say AEW Is Being Unfairly Targeted

Supporters of AEW, however, say the boycott campaign is unfairly targeting an African-owned platform while similar events held in South Africa have not faced the same level of pressure.

They point to the Africa Energy Forum, which was hosted in Cape Town in June, arguing that there were no comparable calls for delegates to boycott that event.

For them, the question is why African Energy Week, a platform built around African energy interests and African dealmaking, is being singled out.

They also argue that AEW brings direct economic value to South Africa, including hotel bookings, venue revenue, transport activity, hospitality spending, media production, logistics contracts and employment.

According to supporters of the event, AEW attracts thousands of delegates to Cape Town and supports hundreds of South African jobs linked to event delivery, media, hospitality, logistics and professional services.

Economic Value Raises the Stakes

Critics insist that economic value is precisely why the South African government must respond.

Their argument is that if South Africa wants to host Africa’s governments, executives, financiers and investors, it must show that Africans are not merely welcome inside conference halls but protected outside them as well.

This is now becoming the central issue around AEW 2026. The debate is no longer only about oil, gas, investment or climate policy. It is about whether South Africa can credibly host a Pan-African business event while concerns over xenophobic violence remain unresolved.

The African Energy Chamber has repeatedly positioned AEW as a platform for African self-determination in energy, arguing that the continent must control its own energy narrative, attract capital, monetise its resources and use oil and gas to support industrial growth.

That message could now be tested by a political and moral question: what responsibility does a Pan-African institution have when Africans say they feel unsafe in the host country?

South Africa Faces Reputational Risk

For Pretoria, the risk is also reputational.

South Africa has spent years positioning itself as a gateway to African investment, a host of major continental conferences and a diplomatic centre for African business.

A boycott campaign targeting AEW would send an uncomfortable signal to investors, governments and event organisers that South Africa’s unresolved xenophobia problem is beginning to carry a commercial cost.

The government may now face growing pressure to go beyond general statements and issue specific guarantees.

Those could include a formal welcome to AEW delegates, coordinated security planning with organisers, visible protection around the Cape Town International Convention Centre, airport arrival support, emergency contact channels for delegates, engagement with African embassies and a clear warning that attacks or intimidation against foreign nationals will not be tolerated.

Security Guarantees Could Rebuild Confidence

For AEW, such guarantees could help stabilise confidence among sponsors, speakers and delegations.

Without them, campaigners are likely to intensify pressure on companies and governments to stay away.

The stakes are high. AEW is one of the most visible energy gatherings on the continent. It brings together governments and companies at a time when Africa is seeking capital for oil and gas production, electricity access, infrastructure, industrialisation and energy security.

A major boycott would not only hurt the event; it would deepen the perception that South Africa is struggling to provide a safe and politically credible environment for African gatherings.

Silence Is No Longer an Option

That is why many observers believe the South African government cannot afford silence.

If Cape Town wants the economic benefit, diplomatic prestige and continental visibility that AEW brings, Pretoria will need to make clear that African delegates are safe, welcome and protected.

Anything less risks turning African Energy Week from a platform for African energy investment into a test case for South Africa’s willingness to stand with the rest of the continent.