Eskom, Transnet hamper mining sector
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Loading... - Lucy Darian
- 30 Jan 2023
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Next month’s Mining Indaba will take place as the sector grapples with inadequate services from state-owned enterprises such as Eskom and Transnet.
What President Cyril Ramaphosa once called South Africa’s sunrise industry has had to contend with rolling blackouts and rail infrastructure decay.
The mining industry employs about 460?000 people and adds almost R500??billion to South Africa’s GDP.
Industry experts have long spoken of the potential effects of Eskom’s load-shedding and Transnet’s infrastructure woes on the mining sector, the longevity and success of which are dependent on the optimum functionality of both state-owned entities.
Peter Major, the director of mining at Mergence Corporate Solutions, said: “Infrastructure, electricity and transport are important. So much equipment has to go to the mines. So much material has to come out of the mines. The industry suffers if these are not working.”
Last week, data from Statistics South Africa showed that mining production decreased for the tenth consecutive month in November as a result of load-shedding.
“[Mining] needs regular transport. Ideally, you would want everything to move through a pipeline, a pipeline with no blockages. That’s how smooth they used to have the rail, and the highway was almost as smooth. You want your electricity moving even smoother than a pipeline,” Major said.
Eskom
South Africa has experienced accelerated load-shedding stages recently as Eskom struggles with its power stations. The nation has experienced daily load-shedding since November, with the exception of Christmas Day, according to The Outlier, an independent news publication specialising in data use.
“If it were up to me, I would have walked away from Eskom,” Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said in an interview with the Mail & Guardian previously. The entity’s chief executive, André de Ruyter, did exactly that when he announced his resignation — effective end March — last month.
Minerals Council South Africa’s Christian Teffo said on eNCA that rolling blackouts have damaged mining infrastructure, which had resulted in the loss of millions of rands and threatened the safety of 2?000 miners. Read More…
