The economic reform agenda has emerged as the defining feature of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s presidency, especially the reforms under way to open the electricity and freight logistics markets to... 

South Africa is experiencing its third energy crisis of this decade. While electricity loadshedding has been a threat for far longer, the most extreme phase was definitely during 2022 and 2023,... 

At the start of South Africa’s democratic era, the availability of cheap coal-fired electricity emerged as the country’s main instrument for attracting investors. It seems almost unbelievable now,... 

South Africa has not escaped the fuel price shocks associated with disruptions to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz energy corridor and the damage to refinery and other infrastructure in the Gulf.... 

Given its recent history, the fact that Eskom is even able to contemplate entering into a 62c/kWh tariff deal with the ferrochrome industry is remarkable. It is a clear indication of how far the... 

During the most recent energy crisis – triggered by attacks by the US and Israel on Iran that resulted in the near closure of the Strait of Hormuz energy corridor ahead of a tenuous ceasefire – one... 

A stand-out statement in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s February 12 State of the Nation Address (SoNA) was the following: “We are restructuring Eskom and establishing a fully independent State-owned... 

The discussion about the future of South Africa's domestic oil refinery fleet is a long and complicated one. It has naturally flared again because of the security of supply concerns associated with... 

That many of South Africa’s 257 municipalities are in crisis is not in question. Also painfully clear is that many metropolitan councils, which oversee the country’s six largest cities of... 

Peace is not merely the absence of war. Yet when conflicts rage, the foremost priority is always to find ways to stop the killing and the destruction of infrastructure. Only then is there any... 

On Friday March 13, 1981, the first edition of Engineering News, then a fortnightly tabloid newspaper, officially made its debut as a specialist business-to-business publication. The date itself... 

The overarching theme of last week’s Budget was definitely the fiscal turning point that has now finally been reached. Debt is being stabilised and the trajectory of the deficit is narrowing,... 

Electricity trading in South Africa, as Etana Energy CEO Evan Rice explained recently, is at once active and in transition. Just how active, is reflected in a report commissioned by the South... 

There is currently a marked difference between how Eskom and Transnet are being assessed against their respective reform milestones. While the State electricity producer is being adjudged,... 

South Africa is weighing a range of policy measures as various manufacturing sectors – from ferroalloys and steel, to automotives – face existential threats. The causes of their eroded... 

A new data portal made publicly available recently by the National Transmission Company South Africa (NTCSA) provides some encouraging insight into the country’s power generation project pipeline.... 

In his prime, it was typical for fans of those teams in which French international footballer N'Golo Kanté played, including Chelsea, to quip that “70% of the Earth is covered by water, the rest by... 

The revised Eskom unbundling strategy announced is emerging as something of a touchstone for government’s commitment – or otherwise – to reforming the structure of an electricity industry that has... 

“We live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time,”... 

As the sun sets on 2025, South Africa’s long-awaited recovery is becoming visible like the first sliver of a waxing crescent days after a new moon. While still modest, the 0.5% GDP expansion in the... 

The complex and multidimensional nature of life in any country means that more than one thing is invariably true at the same time. Moreover, these truths can be highly contradictory, or as Charles... 

When South Africa transitioned to democracy in the 1990s, and when climate constraints were not yet on the agenda, energy policy was arguably the country’s main industrial policy lever. The country... 

There are signs that the long-promised change to the composition of government spending – from consumption to capital investment – is at last taking shape. In his Medium-Term Budget Policy... 

When ArcelorMittal South Africa (AMSA) initially announced in January that it would be closing the Newcastle mill and winding down its long-steel businesses in KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and... 

Given the many moving parts in play currently within the electricity industry, there is a real risk of becoming distracted from what is truly important. Developments over the past few months alone... 

The latest edition of the Integrated Resource Plan for electricity, dubbed IRP 2025, has been Gazetted and its contents have not really come as any surprise. But that does not suggest it does not... 

It is now widely accepted that we live in a misinformation era – one where it has become acceptable, even fashionable, to be anti-science. Scientific consensus is making way for conspiracy... 

South Africans are naturally strongly opposed to any more hefty electricity hikes, having borne above-inflation increases for years while power disruptions intensified and Eskom’s finances... 

The twin crises of surging municipal arrear debt owing to Eskom and rising electricity theft have been lurking for years, and with all efforts to combat the problems having failed. In fact Eskom’s... 

When should a Minister intervene at a State-owned company or independent regulator? It’s a difficult question to answer, and will remain so for as long as Ministers have shareholder... 

South Africa is thankfully surfacing from a of period of prolonged electricity disruption that all but stripped the country of its ability to grow and create jobs for more than a decade. But this... 

It is understandable that few are fully aware of the South African Wholesale Electricity Market (SAWEM) and the likely significance of this complex reform, which represents an important... 

The extreme pace of the 2025 news cycle has made it difficult to remember even the most important developments. For instance, it is difficult to recall the immediate concern raised in January over... 

Developments in the South African steel industry offer a glimpse into the pressures being faced by the manufacturing sector as a whole, and the likely industrial and trade policy responses to those... 

With industrial and trade policy firmly back on the global agenda, South African industry is becoming more vocal in highlighting the threats posed to South Africa’s industrial capacity by policy... 

The message delivered by Electricity and Energy Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa that the reforms under way in the electricity sector are “irreversible”, is an important one. Doubly so, given that... 

There has been an important, yet largely overlooked, shift in South Africa’s approach to meeting its goal of providing universal electricity access by 2030. A proposed revision to the delivery... 

The idiom ‘one step forward, two steps back’ has surely arisen in the minds of those who have been monitoring developments in the electricity industry over the recent past. It is undeniable that...