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Editorial Insight

Terence Creamer is the Editor of Engineering News and a Deputy Editor for Mining Weekly. He also has editorial responsibility for Polity.org.za and Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa.

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Less haste, more speed?
23rd May 2025 By: Terence Creamer

Updating South Africa’s Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) for electricity has always been a perilous endeavour. Despite various attempts, it took nearly ten years for the 2010 edition to be updated,... 


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Opaque policymaking
16th May 2025 By: Terence Creamer

The announcement by Electricity and Energy Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa that the load factor for proposed gas-to-power (GtP) plants in South Africa will be increased from 25% to above 50% was... 


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Unavoidable trade-offs
9th May 2025 By: Terence Creamer

The International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (Itac) has initiated two major tariff reviews that could have significant implications for the country’s existing real-economy... 


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Window of opportunity
2nd May 2025 By: Terence Creamer

The full implications for South Africa of US President Donald Trump’s untargeted trade and industrial policies are not yet fully known. They are unlikely to be pain-free, however. Besides for the... 


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Renewables aspirant
25th April 2025 By: Terence Creamer

Eskom CEO Dan Marokane has outlined the case for why the State-owned utility will be entering the renewable-energy space more assertively over the coming months and years, as well as how the group... 


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Steady progress
18th April 2025 By: Terence Creamer

Methodical progress is being made ahead of the launch, later this year, of South Africa’s inaugural procurement of independent transmission projects (ITPs). Following a market-sounding exercise... 


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Back to the future?
11th April 2025 By: Terence Creamer

There’s some concern that government is delaying the inevitable, after more support was extended to ArcelorMittal South Africa (AMSA) to facilitate a six-month pause of the shutdown of its longs... 


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New narrative
4th April 2025 By: Terence Creamer

Developments in those transport sectors hitherto dominated by Transnet reflect not only a belated acknowledgement of South Africa’s fiscal predicament, but also a growing awareness of the risk... 


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Striking the right Budget balance
28th March 2025 By: Terence Creamer

There are arguably three ways to view recent developments around South Africa’s Budget process. The first, is to lament. 


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Eskom’s four seasons
21st March 2025 By: Terence Creamer

Listening recently to a live rendition of Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons as South Africa descended into yet another unwelcome bout of loadshedding, it did not require much imagination to compare... 


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Trade war blueprint
14th March 2025 By: Terence Creamer

US President Donald Trump’s recently published trade policy agenda leaves absolutely no room for nuance. Not even the tiniest crack has been left to allow light to be shed on the possible... 


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What could go wrong?
7th March 2025 By: Terence Creamer

The perils associated with assigning shareholder responsibilities for State-owned enterprises (SOEs) that previously fell under the Department of Public Enterprises to line ministries can no longer... 


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Has the inconceivable been made conceivable?
28th February 2025 By: Terence Creamer

Absent that dreaded black sharpie, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana (consciously or unconsciously) engaged in a manoeuvre last week that bore more than a passing resemblance to the performative... 


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What next?
21st February 2025 By: Terence Creamer

Amid much hand wringing over President Donald Trump’s hostility towards South Africa, some clear-eyed analysis has emerged confirming that Trump’s enmity has not been triggered only by the new... 


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New abnormal
14th February 2025 By: Terence Creamer

In normal times, the State of the Nation Address (SoNA) would be the dominant political event in South Africa during the week of its delivery. These are far from normal times, however, so the SoNA... 


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Transition momentum
7th February 2025 By: Terence Creamer

Recent developments in South Africa’s electricity market point to there being growing, albeit still nascent, momentum behind the country’s energy transition. They also suggest that the transition... 


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How should SA respond?
31st January 2025 By: Terence Creamer

Be it apartheid, State capture or even the government of national unity, South Africans know firsthand the importance and influence of politics on all aspects of life. There is a strong... 


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Perfect storm?
24th January 2025 By: Terence Creamer

There is every reason to expect that 2025 will be a year of disruption. It’s an expectation informed largely by the reality of widespread national political rupture, epitomised by the return of... 


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Unsurprising yet painful
17th January 2025 By: Terence Creamer

News that the struggling Newcastle Works will close at the end of this month is yet another painful reminder of South Africa’s ongoing deindustrialisation. The development itself is not surprising,... 


Trading blows
Trading blows
13th December 2024 By: Terence Creamer

Trade and industrial policy will play a more prominent and potentially more destabilising role given that President-elect Donald Trump has signalled his intention to leverage tariffs as part of his... 


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Time to make IRP updating routine
6th December 2024 By: Terence Creamer

After the false start of January when the draft Integrated Resource Plan 2023 (IRP2023) was released to much criticism and even incredulity, an effort is now under way to have a revamped IRP2024... 


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From crisis to . . .
29th November 2024 By: Terence Creamer

It was fascinating to listen to Eskom chairperson Mteto Nyati outline, in a recent exchange with the Centre for Development and Enterprises’ Ann Bernstein, why he believed the latest turnaround... 


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Far-reaching consequences
22nd November 2024 By: Terence Creamer

By the time you read this, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) will be about halfway through its nationwide public hearings into Eskom’s sixth multiyear price determination... 


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Trading in focus
15th November 2024 By: Terence Creamer

Few would disagree that aggregators and traders will have an important and increasing role in South Africa’s future electricity market. Even in the current environment, where the industry is still... 


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Private embrace
8th November 2024 By: Terence Creamer

Building much-needed public infrastructure and scaling up private sector participation in the delivery of such infrastructure emerged as the key theme of the first Medium-Term Budget Policy... 


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Ongoing adaptation
1st November 2024 By: Terence Creamer

It is positive that the current framework used by government to procure new generation capacity from independent power producers (IPPs) is under review. These programmes have been struggling to... 


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Age of Electricity
25th October 2024 By: Terence Creamer

The recent claim made by the International Energy Agency (IEA) that humanity is “moving at speed into the Age of Electricity” may not seem especially profound given that electricity has been a key... 


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Whole greater than sum of parts
18th October 2024 By: Terence Creamer

The official launch of the National Transmission Company South Africa as an independent subsidiary of Eskom Holdings did indeed represent an important milestone in the restructuring of South... 


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Growth glue
11th October 2024 By: Terence Creamer

The so-called second phase of the partnership launched between government and business to tackle South Africa’s electricity, logistics and crime crises under the Government of National Unity (GNU)... 


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Mix(ed) messages
4th October 2024 By: Terence Creamer

It’s time for South Africa to interrogate its policy of pursuing a so-called ‘energy mix’, which may sound reasonable, but which has become little more than a convenient fig leaf for policy... 


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Distribution deadlock
27th September 2024 By: Terence Creamer

Few would disagree that the current financial and operational model for electricity distribution is no longer fit for purpose. This lack of sustainability is reflected in the continual rise in the... 


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Hope beyond hype?
20th September 2024 By: Terence Creamer

The current scepticism surrounding the prospects for green hydrogen in South Africa and globally is only natural. A gap was inevitably going to arise between what many have termed “hydrogen hype”... 


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Square peg
13th September 2024 By: Terence Creamer

The haste at which the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) is moving to remedy the embarrassment of having to withdraw the Ministerial determination opening the way for the... 


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Potential peril
6th September 2024 By: Terence Creamer

The assignment of shareholder responsibilities for State-owned enterprises (SOEs) that previously fell under the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) to line departments is an important, yet... 


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Remedy required
30th August 2024 By: Terence Creamer

Given the grid-related uncertainties that have overshadowed Bid Window Seven (BW7) of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP), it was somewhat positive to... 


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Upward pressure
23rd August 2024 By: Terence Creamer

At the first meeting between members of the Cabinet and senior business leaders since the formation of the Government of National Unity it was agreed that the National Energy Crisis Committee... 


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Vertical integration costs
16th August 2024 By: Terence Creamer

For some, the unbundling of South Africa’s vertically integrated electricity utility is viewed as a wonkish problem somewhat akin to insisting that line departments should not have shareholder... 


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No easy road ahead
9th August 2024 By: Terence Creamer

Electricity and Energy Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa is correct when he says South Africa’s electricity pricing policy is in need of review, including the approach being taken to set tariffs... 


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Confidence or arrogance
2nd August 2024 By: Terence Creamer

As loadshedding wanes, Eskom’s confidence is growing. This is not a bad thing, as South Africa needs its State-owned companies to be places of delivery and, eventually, even centres of excellence.... 


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