After the failed repurposing of South Africa’s Komati Power Station in line with the country’s Just Energy Transition Investment Plan, the new coalition government is determined to adopt a more gradual approach to reducing its dependence on coal.

A new Financial Times thought piece describes the disastrous outcomes of the 2022 closure which decimated jobs for area residents, leaving the majority out of work at a time when unemployment was already at 32,9%.

The article quotes Gwede Mantashe, the country’s mining minister, long an advocate of coal, who called the project an “unjust energy transition”. At the time, the Komati repurposing effort mobilised $497 m from the World Bank and was widely praised for its aim to convert the site from coal to renewable energy generation.

As previously reported in Combustion Industry News, South African electricity utility Eskom has been forced to delay medium-term plans to shutter certain coal-fired stations. Speaking at a climate summit in Johannesburg on July 15, President Cyril Ramaphosa confirmed that South Africa will decarbonise at a rate that is affordable to South Africa’s economy and society.

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