In sharing its stance on climate change at the Investing in African Mining Indaba, in Cape Town, the Minerals Council South Africa has acknowledged that the mining industry can, and should, play a role in adapting to and mitigating the consequences of climate change in South Africa. This includes efforts to support a Just Energy [...]

The call by the African National Congress for a State of Disaster to be declared over the energy crisis has come as a surprise to organised business, given that only a few months ago President Cyril Ramaphosa said this been considered but that legal advice was that it could not be implemented, business organisation Business [...]

The absence of a functional mining cadastre in South Africa, which has been undermining the sector for years, is now having potentially negative knock-on effects for developers of renewable-energy projects, particularly in Mpumalanga – a region where there is still capacity to connect new projects to the grid and the designated epicentre of South Africa’s [...]

Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has launched a R120-billion infrastructure portfolio that is poised to form the foundation for economic growth in the city for the next ten years. Planned projects include upgrading wastewater works and sewers; delivering 300-million litres from new water sources daily; ending loadshedding; building a new Khayelitsha-Claremont bus route and fixing [...]

The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) says it is working with other departments to expedite negotiations on a new nuclear cooperation agreement with the US, following the expiry of a previous agreement, with implications for the supply of nuclear fuel to Eskom’s Koeberg power station. The Nuclear Cooperation Agreement on the Peaceful Uses [...]

The National Treasury’s Jobs Fund has selected Sasfin Asset Managers (SAM) and RBN Fund Managers to create a blended finance investment vehicle that expands small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) lending and job creation in South Africa. The Jobs Fund is a multiyear R9-billion National Treasury initiative established in 2011 to encourage innovation and support initiatives [...]

Engineering News editor Terence Creamer discusses the National Energy Crisis Committee's planned initiatives for dealing with the country's electricity crisis; the proposed declaration of the energy crisis as a State of Disaster; Eskom's Generation Recovery Plan and the focus on getting units at the Kusile power station in operation again; what President Cyril Ramaphosa might [...]

South Africa is finalizsng an implementation plan for an $8.5-billion climate finance deal with some of the world’s richest countries even as the head of the Presidential Climate Finance Task Team quit, a government spokesman said. An offer to extend the contract of Daniel Mminele, the head of the team, for three months “is on [...]

Struggling power utility Eskom has confirmed that it has secured funding to pay for its diesel requirements for the remainder of the current financial year, which ends on March 31, but has not yet provided full details on the funding mechanism. Speaking during a hastily convened media conference hosted to provide an update on the [...]

Glencore unit Astron Energy is in the final stages of fully restarting production at its 100 000 bl/d South African refinery, the company said on Thursday. This comes more than two years after a deadly explosion shuttered operations.

Consulting Engineers South Africa (Cesa) has expressed some reservations with a proposal that a National State of Disaster be declared to tackle South Africa’s long-running electricity crisis. While not rejecting the proposal entirely given the urgent need to address the “serious crisis”, CEO Chris Campbell cautioned that “people with ill-intent” could abuse the declaration, as [...]

The Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises has welcomed the proposal to declare the ongoing loadshedding a state of national disaster to assist State-owned utility Eskom to manage the energy crisis. The committee voiced these sentiments during a briefing from the Department of Public Enterprises on progress made in addressing the Auditor-General’s audit findings with respect [...]