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Komati Power Station

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Women are disproportionately affected by climate impacts and economic exclusion. Photo: David Harrison/M&G
BOITUMELO MOLETE

Presidential Climate Commission outlines people-centred just transition for 2026–2030

Commissioners emphasise a people-centred just transition, focusing on rural communities, workers and climate-resilient economic planning

  • Dianah Chiyangwa
5 min read
President Cyril Ramaphosa. (GCIS)
CLIMATE CHANGE

Climate change an existential threat, Ramaphosa says

President calls for urgent action to move South Africa’s just energy transition from commitment to delivery at the inaugural meeting of the reconstituted Presidential Climate…

  • Sheree Bega
4 min read
Komati Power Station decommissioned after serving for 60 years. The shutdown took place on 31 October 2022. The power plant will be converted into a renewable generation site powered with 150MW of solar, 70MW of wind and 150MW of storage batteries.
BELEM

UPDATED: Komati illustrates the human cost of South Africa’s energy transition

What should have been a model for climate action has become a cautionary tale of what happens when communities are excluded from decisions that reshape their lives

  • Dianah Chiyangwa
6 min read
Former glory shattered: Residents attend a community meeting in Steve Tshwete Local Municipality, where the economic fallout of Mpumalanga’s contracting coal sector is increasingly visible. Once one of the country’s top-performing municipalities, it is now struggling with falling rates payments, growing arrears and rising indigent support applications as retrenchments increase. Photo: Ihsaan Haffejee
COAL MINE CLOSURES
Video

Coal’s slow death in Mpumalanga

As jobs disappear from the coal belt, Middelburg’s economy is buckling. Unpaid rates, collapsing businesses and stalled transition support are deepening the crisis

  • Marcia Moyana
  • Thabo Molelekwa
8 min read
South Africa is one of the largest air-polluted countries in Africa according to a report by non-profit organisation Greenpeace Africa. (Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
ARTICLE

South Africa’s air pollution levels are through the roof

The Major Air Polluters in Africa report has found that two of the world’s 10-largest sulphur dioxide emission hotspots are in SA This content is restricted to registered users…

  • Mandisa Makgakga
1 min read
South Africa needs to change its top-down approach, consult communities and fast track the delayed Integrated Energy Plan
CRISPIAN OLVER

Presidential Climate Commission: Green energy to provide employment relief

Crispian Olver, the climate commission’s head, has said that fossil fuel jobs will shrink but citizens will benefit from the green market This content is restricted to registered…

  • Mandisa Makgakga
1 min read
MELLISSA FOURIE

United position needed on future of Komati

Residents say different messages from ministers have cast doubt on the country’s just energy transition

  • Mandisa Makgakga
3 min read
Electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramakgopa. (Theana Breugem/Foto24/Gallo Images)
KGOSIENTSHO RAMOKGOPA

Komati residents fired up over Ramokgopa’s remarks

People living around the power station are calling for it to be reopened

  • Mandisa Makgakga
5 min read
Out with the old, in with the new: Komati is being used to demonstrate how old power plants can be repurposed.
GWEDE MANTASHE

‘Will Komati power station shift to renewable energy cater for everyone?’

Komati has been earmarked to be the facility pioneering the transition from coal to renewables in Mpumalanga

  • Mandisa Makgakga
4 min read
Energy mix: People living near Grootvlei use wood, coal and electricity as fuel. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
COAL

Grootvlei residents demand jobs, threaten to stop transition

Community members living close to the Grootvlei power plant say they will protest against Eskom’s plans to use external contractors

  • Lesego Chepape
  • Mandisa Makgakga
7 min read
While coal producers stand to benefit from stronger prices and export demand, researchers warn that increased coal production and exports carry significant environmental and social costs, from greenhouse gas emissions to the impacts borne by communities living near mines and coal-fired power stations. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
BLESSING MANALE

Have coal industry workers been left in the dark?

South Africa’s transition to renewable energy is challenged by a shortage of planning, skills development and training, an investigation by Oxpeckers finds

  • Thabo Molelekwa
  • Oxpeckers
11 min read
The Presidential Climate Commission has objected to extending coal-fired power stations beyond their natural lifespan. (Waldo Swiegers/Getty Images)
BOBBY PEEK

Just energy transition ‘not just’, says environmental NGO

A new report by groundWork shines the spotlight on the closure of Komati power station in Mpumalanga

  • Sheree Bega
6 min read
Out with the old, in with the new: Komati is being used to demonstrate how old power plants can be repurposed.
COAL

South Africa’s energy transition rises in the east

Mpumalanga, the province ‘where the sun rises’, takes centre stage in SA’s Just Energy Transition Plan

  • Oxpeckers
  • Yolandi Groenewald
8 min read
If the sun sets on coal mines and oil rigs, a new horizon emerges: the dawn of a renewable energy revolution. But what happens to the workers whose livelihoods are tied to the old way of doing things? (Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg/Getty Images)
10BILLION

Eskom workers worry the just transition will shed jobs

Workers at coal-fired power stations in Mpumalanga remain concerned despite assurances that the transition will be just

  • Mandisa Makgakga
4 min read