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Mozambique launches construction of $1bn power plant, transmission line

Mozambique on Monday began construction of gas-to-power plant and transmission line projects worth $1 billion in the southern province of Inhambane as the government aims to boost energy supply. The World Bank is one of the financing partners of the infrastructure projects, alongside the United States, Norway, African Development Bank (AfDB), Islamic Bank and The OPEC Fund for International Development, according statements from the World Bank and the US embassy.
June 1, 2021 by

Seriti assumes management of SAEC assets

Miner Seriti Resources has completed all of the conditions precedent in respect of its acquisition of South32’s South African Coal Holdings (SAEC), with the transaction now closed and Seriti assuming management of these operations from June 1.

SAEC has been renamed Seriti Power, and comprises the Khutala, Klipspruit and Middelburg Mines Services (MMS) North and South mines, which provide coal to Eskom’s Kendal and Duhva power stations.

June 1, 2021 by

Steel backlog won’t be solved by eliminating safeguard duties, AMSA avers

Steel producer ArcelorMittal South Africa (AMSA) has rebuffed increasingly vociferous calls for the elimination of safeguard duties to ease ongoing supply constraints and price increases in the domestic market. CEO Kobus Verster acknowledges that some backlogs, which began to emerge in late 2019 and became more acute once lockdowns were imposed in response to Covid-19, remain for some categories of steel, most notably flat-steel products.
May 31, 2021 by

Eskom should not probe CEO over racism allegation, advocate says

Eskom Holdings CEO Andre de Ruyter should not be subjected to an investigation over racism allegations leveled by the company’s now fired chief procurement officer, an advocate hired to make a ruling on the CPO’s conduct said. By setting up the probe in response to allegations leveled by the CPO, Solly Tshitangano, Eskom’s board demonstrated “weakness,” Advocate Nazeer Cassim said in a ruling that led to Tshitangano’s dismissal on May 28. Cassim found the CPO guilty of charges related to a fuel-oil supply deal with Econ Oil & Energy that Eskom says was fraudulent.
May 31, 2021 by

Competition Tribunal approves two separate renewable energy transactions

The Competition Tribunal has unconditionally approved two mergers, by the same acquiring firm in the renewable energy sector after determining that both transactions are unlikely to substantially prevent or lessen competition in any relevant market, or have a negative impact on the public interest.

The acquiring firm – Revego Africa Energy Fund Partnership, a limited partnership, represented by Revego General Partner (RF) in its capacity as general partner – is a South African company.

May 28, 2021 by

Davies calls for a New Deal-style recovery strategy that eschews austerity

Former Trade and Industry Minister Dr Rob Davies is urging the South African government, in which he served as a Cabinet Minister from 2009 to 2019, to implement a New Deal-style recovery programme to address the economic damage arising from both Covid-19 and more than a decade of economic drift. Speaking during a recent virtual launch of his new book, Davies cautioned that a retreat to austerity could result in a long and politically destabilising period of stagnation. The recovery effort, he said, had to be of a scale commensurate with the economic damage inflicted by the pandemic to avoid widening inequality and a deepening of poverty.
May 28, 2021 by