A new public-private initiative has been launched in an effort to support the growth and development of South Africa’s manufacturing sector, whose recovery from the Covid lockdowns is currently being undermined by intense daily loadshedding. Known as the Localisation Support Fund (LSF), the non-profit company is being funded by the private sector, but has a board that includes government, labour and business representatives, including Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Ebrahim Patel, who is LSF chairperson.
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Standard Bank Group, Africa’s biggest lender by assets, defended it’s investment in fossil-fuel projects, saying tthe continent’s energy needs have to be balanced with climate concerns. The Johannesburg-based bank’s exposure to coal mining, oil and gas and power generation from fossil fuels rose 21% last year to R119.4-billion, according to Just Share, a Cape Town-based shareholder activist organisation. While that’s almost five times its exposure to renewable energy projects, lending to green-power initiatives rose 84% over the year.
Eskom says it can’t commit to compensating businesses affected by power cuts in Mahikeng. The power utility’s customer relations manager, Ezekiel Baruti, told News24 that the power outages, which lasted for more than a week, had affected residential homes and businesses, including mortuaries.
The South African economy is limited to 1.5% potential growth a year because there is no productivity growth. National productivity has declined for five years in a row, highlighting the economy’s structural constraints, including in a lack of energy security and logistics capacity, mining industry body Minerals Council South Africa outgoing CEO Roger Baxter told delegates at a recent media briefing. “Unless we stabilise energy availability and get logistics working to transport investment and value to the rest of the economy, we will not get the economy back on track,” he said.
Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has said his department will lodge an urgent appeal to set aside the judgment handed down by the North Gauteng High Court on May 5 that schools, hospitals and police stations must be spared from loadshedding. Judge Norman Davis ordered Gordhan to take all reasonable steps within 60 days to ensure these places of interest are not affected by loadshedding, as it infringes on Constitutional rights.
The National Treasury has confirmed that the once-off independent review of Eskom’s 14 coal fired power stations is under way and should be concluded by July. The review was announced by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana during his February Budget when he also unveiled the R254-billion Eskom Debt Relief plan.
The Experian Business Debt Index (BDI) declined sharply to 0.996 in the fourth quarter of last year, following a reading of 1.591 in the third quarter, reflecting intense and more frequent loadshedding in the period and backlogs at South Africa’s ports.
The BDI reflects the relative ability for businesses to pay their outstanding suppliers or creditors, which indicates the overall health of businesses in the economy.
On a late Thursday afternoon last November, in the midst of rolling blackouts implemented by South Africa’s state-owned electricity company, a contractor at a power station in the eastern Mpumalanga province pulled a plug connected to one of the site’s main generation units. The unit subsequently broke down, ensuring yet another day of nationwide outages.
A procurement and funding strategy empowering Eskom to proceed with a five-year emergency procurement programme has been finalised and will be presented to the State-owned utility’s board for approval during May. National Energy Crisis Committee (NECOM) secretariat head Rudi Dicks said on Friday that a Ministerial determination opening the way for the Load Shedding Reduction Programme (LSRP) had been published by Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe and was currently awaiting the concurrence of the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa).
Electricity Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa reports that “open and frank” discussions have been held with those countries that have agreed to extended $8.5-billion in concessional funding to support South Africa’s transition from coal to renewables about the possibility of delaying the decommissioning of certain coal-fired power stations in light of ongoing loadshedding. Speaking during a briefing on the implementation of the Energy Action Plan, Ramokgopa reported that meetings with representatives of the International Partners Group (IPG) that make up the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) had included himself, as well as Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan and Forestry Fisheries and the Environment Minister Barbara Creecy.
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