More than $50-billion has been committed to an ambitious plan to halve the number of people without access to electricity in Africa, according to the World Bank, its biggest backer. The programme, named Mission 300 because of its goal to bring electricity to 300-million people by 2030, has delivered power to 44-million people since it was officially announced at a conference in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in January last year.
South Africa’s electricity market is evolving rapidly, shaped by a convergence of policy shifts, technological advances and growing global trade requirements. Yet, a persistent challenge is understanding the role of electricity traders within the energy market – what they do, why they exist and how they underpin both investment and competitiveness in the electricity sector, electricity trader Apollo Africa CEO Nico de Bruyn writes.
Africa had an energy deficit, highlighted African Union (AU) Commissioner for Infrastructure Lerato Mataboge, on Wednesday. She was addressing the 2026 Africa Energy Indaba, being held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. “Energy is the foundation upon which modern economies are built,” she pointed out. Without reliable energy, industrialisation was elusive, and the future of young Africans was bleak.
South Africa is seeking to expand its electricity transmission grid, which wis a R450-billion challenge, President Cyril Ramaphosa said in his keynote address at the 2026 Africa Energy Indaba, at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, on March 4. “The main focus in our country has really been the energy landscape and the reform thereof,” he told the assembled delegates. “Electricity is an absolute necessity in the lives of all South Africans. Today, 93% of South African households have electricity.”
The pledges agreed at the COP 30 climate conference in Belem, Brazil, last year, brought real opportunities for Africa, emphasised UN Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) programme manager Karin Reiss. She was speaking in a panel discussion at Africa Energy Indaba 2026, being held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, on Tuesday. (Key COP 30 outcomes were agreements to triple climate adaptation finance by 2035; establish a Just Transition Mechanism to support fairness in moving to a green economy; and the adoption of 59 global indicators to track progress in adaptation.)
South African Electicity and Energy Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has highlighted the current global upheavals and what they mean for African energy in his welcoming address at Africa Energy Indaba 2026, at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, on Tuesday. “The global order, as we have known it for decades, is recalibrating in real time,” he pointed out. “Energy sits at the epicentre of this reordering. Electricity has become sovereignty expressed in electrons.”
The Glencore-Merafe Chrome Venture has paused a retrenchment process at its ferrochrome smelters by a month to March 31 after Eskom made a 62c/kWh tariff offer on the eve of its previous February 28 deadline for the implementation of retrenchments. In a statement, the venture expressed appreciation for the efforts that had been made by government and Eskom to find a tariff solution. But it noted that the associated terms, conditions, and contractual framework were still being finalised and remained subject to approval by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa).
Eskom announced on Friday that it had extended an eleventh-hour 62c/kWh tariff offer to ferrochrome producers Glencore‑Merafe Chrome Venture and Samancor, but indicated that negotiations on the precise terms and conditions still needed to be finalised before the package could be submitted for regulatory approval. Hence the details of the package, including its structure, duration, take-or-pay commitments, and any risk-and-reward sharing, would only be made available once the negotiations had been concluded and a submission was made to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) for its approval of the discounted tariff.
Eskom has reached an agreement to suspend legal proceedings instituted against the granting of trading licences in 2024 to allow the current regulatory process to draft new trading rules to proceed in the absence of parallel litigation. In what was a surprise development at the time, Eskom applied to the High Court in July 2025 to have the National Energy Regulator of South Africa’s (Nersa’s) decision to grant five electricity trading licences reviewed and set aside.
Eskom Holdings will be allowed to take over the distribution of electricity in South African municipalities that collectively owed the state utility R85.2-billion at the end of last year. The government has offered support to local authorities that have fallen into arrears due to weak revenue generation, poor credit controls and other financial pressures. But only 15 of 71 councils that signed up for a turnaround program have consistently met the conditions to qualify for relief from the state, including demonstrating improved debt collection.
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