Creamer Media's Energy Roundup is a monthly report providing a synopsis of energy-related news from South Africa. The December 2020 roundup covers activities in November 2020, and includes details of a report by Climate Transparency, which warns against quick-fix Covid-19 stimulus packages that favour fossil fuel industries; six steps that could be taken immediately by the South African government and the energy regulator to unlock more self-generation investment to combat power shortages and reduce the threat of load-shedding; and South Africa’s Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries’ order that State-owned power utility Eskom comply with pollution limits at three of its coal-fired power plants.

Creamer Media's Energy Roundup is a monthly report providing a synopsis of energy-related news from South Africa. The November 2020 roundup covers activities in October 2020, and includes details of the gazetting of amendments to the electricity regulations for new electricity generation capacity; energy expert Clyde Mallinson’s call for government to urgently overhaul its Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme; and Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe’s approval to process licence applications for self-generation facilities of above 1 MW.

Even before the Covid-19 pandemic kicked lumps out of the South African economy, the country was on the back foot when it came to fixed investment projects and its pipeline of new investments. Public-sector spending was waning, despite huge backlogs and community protests over the lack of services, while the private sector lacked the policy certainty and confidence needed to proceed with major projects. Now that the virus has further undermined the financial capacity of government and its poorly managed State-owned entities to stimulate the economy through large-scale infrastructure programmes, any infrastructure-led recovery will require new delivery, funding and business models. Only through extreme transparency will South Africa attract investors motivated by fair returns over the project life cycle, rather than predatory opportunists and rent seekers. Another critical component lies in having a ready-made pipeline of projects that are immediately bankable, rather than merely aspirational. That pipeline must include not only projects directed at meeting the country’s most pressing infrastructure needs but those that can also be immediately funded through sustainable fiscal transfers, user-pay tariffs or a combination of the two. South Africa, therefore, needs to adopt a far more innovative and collaborative approach to the conceptualisation, financing, implementation, operations and maintenance of public infrastructure if it is to have any hope of truly using such investments to stimulate a recovery from the economic devastation wrought by Covid-19. These difficulties are partially reflected in the second edition of the Projects in Progress supplement.