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The South African automotive industry has again appealed for the inclusion of demand-side incentives to stimulate the uptake of battery electric vehicles (BEVs), notwithstanding government’s ongoing insistence that any policy framework to support so-called new energy vehicles (NEVs), including BEVs, will be production-led.

Speaking at a naamsa | The Automotive Business Council conference in Tshwane, naamsa president Neale Hill said that the prevailing price premium of BEVs relative to internal combustion engine (ICE) cars was more than 50% currently and that most countries were, thus, implementing demand-side interventions to catalyse sales.

Hill, who also leads the Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa, acknowledged that 60% of vehicle production in South Africa was destined for export markets and that the domestic original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) could not be sustained in the absence of exports to markets that were transitioning away from ICE vehicles.

“But at the same time, it can also not be sustained without the 40% domestic market sales. So, both demand- and supply-side support is required,” he argued.

An analysis of South Africa’s vehicle exports also showed that, while four of South Africa’s seven OEMs exported more than 50% of their vehicle production, with two exporting more than 90%, there were three OEMs exporting less than 50% of their units.

Although Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Ebrahim Patel, who was initially expected to address the conference, was unable to attend, Department of Trade, Industry and Competition acting director-general Malebo Mabitje-Thompson reiterated government’s reluctance to extend incentives to stimulate BEV demand.

“As far as BEVs are concerned, we believe the most viable way to help take the sector to the next level is going to be through a manufacturing-focused approach and we want to start with the production of BEVs in South Africa as an initial point.

“We don't want to risk South Africa becoming the last place where ICE vehicles are produced while other countries capture BEV production and it's for that reason that we are saying: ‘let’s start here first’.”

Besides settling on the future incentives for BEVs, Hill also reiterated the industry’s position that it was urgent for South Africa to finalise its policy framework for NEVs, noting that three in every four vehicles exported were destined for either the UK, or markets in the European Union where the sale of ICE vehicles would be banned in 2030 and 2035 respectively.

He argued that the impact of the bans would be felt well before the official date of prohibition, with South Africa’s exports to countries that had bans entering into force in 2025, such as Norway, having already slumped.

“The concern is that, if this trend also applied to the UK, our top export destination for vehicles, Germany at number two, Belgium at number seven and the Netherlands at number 10, then the impact on our vehicle and component exports will be felt long before 2030.”

ERWIN CALLS FOR URGENCY

Former Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin also underlined the need for urgency, responding to a question on what advice he would offer to government, he made the following quip: “Well, I could put it in technical economic terms: ‘I think we’ve got to move our ass!’.”

Erwin argued, however, that he did not see the current transition as presenting as existential a threat to the South African industry as was the case in the 1990s when the automotive industry was forced to shift from a structure based on inward industrialisation, supported by high tariffs, to one that was internationally competitive and integrated into global markets.

“I don't see this as a massive shift, I see it as a massive opportunity. Why? Precisely because firstly, we've got this capacity of production and advanced manufacturing production; we are not semi-knocked down plants that are common in the rest of Africa, we have full-blown integrated manufacturing facilities – w...

It’s like a Roomba for water, and it has its roots in Cape Town.

If you don’t know what a Roomba is, it is a robotic vacuum cleaner that hoovers your carpets and floors autonomously.

The WasteShark has the same job description, but it works in the water, cleaning the surfaces of ponds, ports, marinas, canals and lakes.

The waste collector was designed by a Dutch company called RanMarine Technology (RMT), founded in 2016, explains RMT chief product officer Alistair Longman.

The South African founder and CEO of the company, Richard Hardiman, stumbled on the idea when he witnessed a boat crew at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town fish out debris from the canals with a net.

“The concept is based on the world's largest fish – the whale shark,” Longman tells Engineering News Online.

“The design of the WasteShark mimics the gaping mouth of the whale shark as it filters food from the surrounding water.”

The WasteShark is able to collect floating debris from the water surface, including trash and unwanted biomass, like floating macroalgae and water hyacinth.

“The machine can clean up anything that is floating on the water, as long as it can fit into its mouth,” says Longman.

This list includes all kinds of plastic and glass bottles, bags, packaging, food wrappers, sticks, leaves, duckweed, water hyacinth, gloves, shoes and soccer balls.

The WasteShark will, however, avoid marine life.

“The WasteShark moves slowly through the water, so birds and other marine life are easily able to move out of its way,” says Longman.

“To date we have not harmed any marine life with a WasteShark, and the only fish we collected are dead ones floating on the surface.”

An additional benefit from employing the WasteShark is that it is able to collect geo-tagged environmental data on water health while it cleans, such as pH and dissolved oxygen.

This data is accessible from an online software portal called Ranmarine Connect.

The WasteShark operates best in inland and sheltered coastal waters, says Longman.

Around 1.6 m by 1 m in size, it is designed to cope with a one-and-a-half metre swell.

It can collect up to 160 l or 60 kg of floating debris in one payload.

Because it is compact, the machine can access floating waste in chokeholds and difficult to reach areas, such as behind moored vessels and under jetties, notes Longman.

In terms of operations, there are currently two versions of the WasteShark ­– a radio-controlled waste collector which is driven by an operator on shore, as well as an autonomous version that can follow a path of predefined waypoints whilst avoiding obstacles.

The Ranmarine Connect interface allows the operator to plot routes on a map, and to start autonomous missions.

The autonomous WasteShark is fitted with LiDAR which helps it to detect and avoid immovable and moving obstacles, such as other boats or quayside walls.

This version also has other integrated instruments like an inertial measurement unit and dual-GPS modules which allow it to determine its own position relative to the path it is to follow.

The WasteShark is powered by two electrically driven motors dual directional thrusters connected to rechargeable batteries, which provide an operating time of up to eight hours on a single charge.

Electric operation offers the opportunity for 100% emission-free operation if the batteries are charged using a renewable source of electricity, says Longman.

The size and weight of the WasteShark means the product can be easily deployed by two people.

“The WasteShark can be carried and placed in different operating areas by simply lifting it and placing it in the water,” says Longman.

The machine can also operate during the night.

First Clients

Depending on the level of autonomy, the WasteShark ranges in price from €20 000 to €33 000.

“This is a competitive price,” says Longman.

“Realistic modelling demonstrates that an autonomous WasteShark is at least 70% more efficient than employing the traditional method of cleaning, which involves two p...

Government and the steel industry are considering the potential of positioning South Africa as a global exporter of green hydrogen direct reduced iron (GHDRI) as part of a broader discussion to develop a roadmap for the decarbonisation of the iron and steel value chain.

Department of Trade, Industry and Competition primary minerals beneficiation and construction director Mahendra Shunmoogam told stakeholders during a meeting in Sandton that green processing and production are likely to become a significant competitive advantage, especially in the export market.

“The Steel Master Plan proposes that the industry agrees to a target for the industry to reach carbon neutrality by 2050,” Shunmoogam said, noting that South Africa had, thus, joined the Leadership Group for Industry Transition (LeadIT) in 2022 with the objective of partnering with external stakeholders to enable a greening of the sector.

Launched by the governments of Sweden and India in 2019, the LeadIT platform includes countries and companies that are aiming to achieve net-zero carbon emissions from heavy industry by 2050.

Together with Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies (TIPS), the platform is helping to facilitate South Africa’s consultations on the decarbonisation of the country’s steel value chain, with the LeadIT secretariat’s Dr Aaron Maltais reporting that South Africa was the newest country member of the platform, which currently comprised 18 country members and 18 companies.

Swedish Ambassador to South Africa Håkan Juholt said the time for speeches by government officials was over and that it was now crucial for industry stakeholders to collaborate on decarbonisation solutions in sectors such as iron and steel.

He noted that Sweden was itself in the process of transitioning its steel industry, highlighting in particular the progress being made in the military town of Boden in a county that borders Finland and Norway, where a mill is being built with the potential to produce five-million tons yearly of carbon-neutral steel by 2030, using hydrogen technology.

“We are determined [as Sweden] to be first into the new, not last out of the old,” Juholt said, after quoting the late Swedish trade unionist and politician Göran Johansson who once told his union colleagues that he was never afraid of new technology, but deeply afraid of old technology and the impact that holding on to such technology could have on jobs.

University of Cape Town research fellow Hilton Trollip used the engagement to make the case for South Africa playing a central role in the global green steel transition, initially by using green hydrogen to produce GHDRI for export, primarily to Europe.

He argued that South Africa’s combination of potent renewable resources, land and good quality iron-ore positioned it as a potential least-cost supplier of an emerging global commodity, in the form of GHDRI, which could make it possible for the world to meet the Paris Agreement goals.

Without it, as well as other mitigating actions, it would be near impossible to decarbonise a sector that currently made up 8% of thermal emissions.

Trollip noted that several other countries, including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, Norway, Oman, Romania, South Korea, Spain and Sweden had already announced GHDRI projects and that ArcelorMittal South Africa had also indicated its intention to produce the commodity from 2030.

The JSE-listed steel group is considering producing GHDRI using the Midrex plant at the mothballed Saldanha Steel mill, in the Western Cape, using green hydrogen produced by an electrolyser where renewable electricity is deployed to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.

“We think it must be earlier,” Trollip said, arguing that besides supportive resources, South Africa also had the technical and financial know-how to pursue GHDRI projects.

He warned, however, that global decarbonisation at rates consistent with the Paris Agreement goals was unlikely without ...

The proposed capital budget for the City of Cape Town’s Urban Mobility Directorate, announced last week, amounts to roughly R8.3-billion over the next three financial years, with more than R543-million set aside for projects to relieve traffic congestion; R553-million for road reconstruction and rehabilitation, as well as R5.2-billion to expand the MyCiTi bus service to the metro-south east, Wynberg and Claremont.

Nearly R57-million is also budgeted for a new MyCiTi station in Maitland that will form part of route extensions between Dunoon, Maitland and Century City in coming years.

Projects amounting to R51-million are also in the pipeline to improve walking and cycling lanes in Khayelitsha over the next three financial years; and about R52-million for Mitchells Plain over the same period.

There are also numerous projects related to minibus taxis.

These include the R60-million budgeted for a new minibus-taxi facility in Mfuleni; with R168.1-million budgeted for a new public transport interchange (PTI) in Nyanga; R53.6-million for a PTI in Vuyani; R77.4-million for a new PTI in Nolungile; R57.7-million for a new PTI in Nonkqubela; while R9.8-million is budgeted for the upgrade of the Manenberg PTI.

As for the operational budget, about R4.2-billion has been allocated for the next financial year, starting July 1, with a continued focus on road maintenance.

The operational budget is spent on day-to-day costs, on maintenance of existing infrastructure, and the operational costs of the MyCiTi bus service.

“Mobility is our business,” says Urban Mobility MMC Rob Quintas.

“Our expenditure priorities for the next three financial years demonstrate our intention to keep people, goods and services on the move with a well maintained and expanding road network and improved access to public transport services.”

The City of Cape Town is responsible for maintaining a road network of more than 10 700 km.

The South African government is moving to exclude solar photovoltaic (PV) and battery storage facilities from the requirement to obtain environmental authorisation in areas where the environmental sensitivity is officially classified to be medium to low.

Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Minister Barbara Creecy is seeking public comment on the plan, which is outlined in a Government Gazette notice, indicating that the exclusion has been proposed in terms of Section 24(2)(d) of the National Environmental Management Act, 1998 (Nema) and applies subject to compliance with a prescribed ‘norm’ developed in terms of 24(10) of Nema.

This ‘norm’ makes it possible to exclude the development and expansion of solar PV and battery facilities from environmental impact assessment regulations in areas of low or medium environmental sensitivity.

Such projects will be subject to a site-sensitivity verification and will also need to comply with a site-specific environmental management programme and a registration process.

The department has developed a Web-based screening tool to identify environmental sensitivities of a specific geographical location or site related to various identified environmental themes.

The proposed exclusion comes amid frequent and intense power cuts and an assessment hat South Africa needs to add about 6 000 MW of new generation capacity to close the supply/demand gap and create space for higher levels of maintenance of Eskom’s unreliable coal fleet.

It also follows a decision to termite a state of disaster declare in respect of the electricity crisis and to, instead, take actions using existing legislation and regulation.

“This is in line with the sector’s ongoing efforts to simplify the environmental legislative impact assessment framework for energy projects whilst ensuring that environmental protection is not compromised,” the department said in a statement, adding that the intention of the proposed exclusions is to improve the efficiency of the environmental assessment process.

“In addition, these exclusions intend to simplify the deployment of solar PV and battery storage facilities, to expedite the generation of electricity from renewable energy resources, facilitate the distribution of this generation capacity and contribute to addressing the existing electricity shortages currently being experienced by the country.”

The Gazette states that written comments should be made within 30 days of publication of on the notice, which is dated April 14.

Engineering News editor Terence Creamer discusses the important step taken this week with regard to the unbundling of Eskom's grid company and the fresh confusion over what South Africa's plan is for tackling the power crisis.

SVI Armouring Solutions expects to armour around 200 vehicles this year, up from 130 vehicles in 2020.

SVI business development director Nicol Louw says the recent surge in the domestic crime rate, as well as the 2021 riots, seem to have kindled demand for armoured vehicles, both on a personal and corporate level.

Uncertainty around the security of power supply from parastatal Eskom and the potential repercussions of a total blackout have also prompted interest in SVI’s products.

Corporate customers make up around 80% of SVI sales.

“Demand showed a very strong upswing in KwaZulu-Natal following the riots there,” notes Louw.

There has also been strong growth in demand for the MAX 3 armoured personnel carrier at mines in the face of continued and expanding illegal mining.

The MAX 3, built on a Land Cruiser platform, typically replaces the Mambas and Nyalas currently in use at mining operations.

SVI sold three units in 2020, and is expected to end 2023 at 50 units.

Louw says SVI has also seen a strong move in recent years from B4 armour, which offers handgun protection, towards B6 armour, which offers protection against assault weapons.

SVI takes a standard vehicle and transforms it into an armoured vehicle.

The least expensive type of non-discreet armour (cab only) starts at R260 388, excluding VAT. This would typically be for a single-cab bakkie acting as an escort for other vehicles.

B4 discreet all-round armour starts at R500 000, and B6 discreet all-round armour at around R760 000, excluding VAT for a double-cab bakkie.

Armoured bakkies make up most of SVI’s work.

Louw says SVI saw a 57% growth in turnover in the 2023 financial year. This follows on a 51% increase in 2022.

He says these numbers included not only vehicle sales, but also armoured guard houses, income from the company’s armoured rental fleet (currently at more than 30 units), and advanced driver training courses.

President Cyril Ramaphosa unveiled a new investment target of R2-trillion for the five-year period to 2028 at the fifth edition of the South African Investment Conference on Thursday, where he also received new pledges from domestic and international investors that enabled him to confirm that the R1.2-trillion five-year target set in 2018 had been exceeded.

The event took place in a context of ongoing power cuts, which the President acknowledged were weakening confidence, tainting international perceptions about South Africa and undermining investment sentiment and decisions.

“The energy sector remains our foremost priority,” he told investors during an address that placed stress on the reforms being introduced to enable greater private sector participation in the electricity supply industry.

Ramaphosa announced that the reforms that facilitated the removal of the licensing threshold for embedded generation projects had already led to the development of a 10 GW-strong pipeline of mostly renewable-energy projects, about 8 GW of which were being pursued by South African mining companies.

This was partly reflected in the pledges made, with a total of 11 electricity-related investment commitments presented, including:

a R108-million investment by ARTSolar to increase it solar panel production at its factory in KwaZulu-Natal;

a R135-million investment by Ener-G-Africa to produce small solar panels and solar cooking appliances;

the R3.8-billion in solar generation being developed by the Sola Group to supply Tronox’s minerals sands operations;

a R580-million investment by Mahlako into three solar projects for Harmony Gold mines;

an R800-million solar project by Chariot Transitional Power and Total Eren to supply the Tharisa mines in the North West province;

a R1.35-billion commitment by Unigreen Energy of Russia to develop solar capacity in the North West province for private offtakers;

Seriti Green Energy’s R4.5-billion project to develop a 155 MW wind project in Mpumalanga;

a R1-billion investment in renewable energy by Toyota to supply its facilities in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal;

ArcelorMittal South Africa’s R3-billion solar investment to supply electricity to its Gauteng steel operations;

a R251-million project by Rheinmetall Denel Munition to develop a solar farm and a mobile green hydrogen facility to support its defence-related activities; and

a R105-billion green hydrogen and green ammonia commitment by Hive Hydrogen for development at Coega, in the Eastern Cape.

Ramaphosa also said that in parallel with the work under way to close the electricity supply shortfall and end loadshedding, government was laying the foundation for a fundamental reform of the energy sector in the longer term, which would open opportunities for private investors.

“Cabinet has approved the Electricity Regulation Amendment Bill, which will soon be tabled in Parliament, to establish a competitive market for electricity generation.”

South Africa’s commitment to the Just Energy Transition Investment Plan and the target of achieving net zero emissions by 2050 was also reiterated against the backdrop of fresh uncertainty around both following recent comments by Electricity Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, who indicated that he was likely to propose a life-extension for the unreliable Eskom coal fleet as part of options he would be presenting to Cabinet for tackling loadshedding.

However, speaking at the conference Ramokgopa stressed that fixing Eskom’s coal stations represented but one of five pillars of the Energy Action Plan, with the others being the acceleration of embedded generation investment, making faster progress with the public procurement of renewables, batteries and gas, unbundling Eskom to ensure greater investment in the grid, and supporting rooftop solar and demand reduction.

That said, the President injected a note of caution saying that the just transition would be pursued “at a pace our country can afford and in a manner that advanc...

President Cyril Ramaphosa will outline what actions South Africa is taking to tackle its economically debilitating electricity crisis when he addresses investors at the fifth South African Investment Conference on Thursday, Presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya has confirmed.

The event will take place amid an intense period of rotational power cuts, with Eskom having declared Stage 5 and 6 loadshedding for Wednesday and Thursday, as well as serious disruptions to the supply of electricity to residents and businesses in parts of Pretoria, including car manufacturer Ford, following the catastrophic collapse of seven power pylons on Sunday night, possibly precipitated by the vandalism of a pylon along the N4 East freeway.

It will also take place after the International Monetary Fund officially slashed its 2023 growth outlook for South Africa from 1.1% to 0.1%, having stated in its Staff Concluding Statement in late March following its 2023 Article IV Mission that the downgrade was mainly owing to a significant increase in the intensity of power cuts, as well as weaker commodity prices.

“The President will deliver a very clear message tomorrow with respect to what we have done and what we are doing to resolve this energy crisis,” Magwenya said during a briefing.

He added that the address would also highlight “pockets of opportunity for investors to exploit”, including the potential to take advantage of the removal of the 100 MW threshold on the size of embedded generation projects that can proceed without a licence, even when connecting to the grid and selling to third parties.

Ramaphosa would also likely highlight the collaborative efforts under way between government, business and labour to tackle both the electricity crisis, as well as the crisis unfolding across the country’s freight logistics networks as a result of a lack of availability of locomotives on key export corridors, as well as ongoing cable theft.

The President met with representatives of organised labour from the ports and rail system on Wednesday following a similar interaction with South Africa’s largest exporters on April 5 and a meeting with the Transnet board and executive management on March 28.

It is anticipated that a crisis committee similar to the National Energy Crisis Committee, established last year in light of intensifying loadshedding, will be established in an effort to address the collapse of freight logistics services.

Earlier on Wednesday, Ramaphosa met with several business leaders where it was again agreed that there was a need to accelerate resolution of the energy, logistics, crime and corruption crises undermining growth and employment, as well as investor confidence.

Government was nevertheless confident of meeting the R1.2-trillion five-year investment target set by Ramaphosa in 2018, when the first South African Investment Conference was hosted, with commitments of R 1.14-trillion having already been announced.

Magwenya said the target was likely to be met or exceeded and confirmed that the President would be setting a new goal for the period ahead, despite growing scepticism over the value of such targets and an increasingly jaded attitude towards the investment conference itself. The new target would also be announced notwithstanding high levels of uncertainty about the electoral prospects of the governing African National Congress in 2024.

Magwenya reported that, as of March 31, 83 of the 231 projects announced at previous editions of the South African Investment Conference, with a combined value of R170-billion, had been completed.

He added that investment flows of R450-billion had also been achieved since the first edition of the conference, with 77 projects under construction and 28 at early stages of implementation.

The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) has hosted public hearings into an application by the National Transmission Company South Africa (NTC) for the three licences it requires to begin operating as an independent subsidiary of Eskom Holdings, in line with the unbundling “journey” first outlined by the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) in 2019.

The vertical separation of the grid company from Eskom is seen as a crucial step for levelling the playing field between Eskom Generation and independent power producers (IPPs), as well as for ensuring that sufficient transmission assets are funded and built to facilitate new generation investment.

A lack of grid capacity in the high-potential renewables regions of the Northern, Eastern and Western Cape provinces has emerged as a key constraint, with not a single wind project selected as a preferred bidder during the most recent public procurement round. This, owing to transmission limitations, as well as growing competition for grid allocations following recent market reforms allowing for private grid-connected distributed generation projects to proceed without a licence.

The regulator’s approval of the licences is one of two outstanding suspensive conditions for the legal separation of NTC, with the other being that of lender consent.

Eskom group executive for Transmission Segomoco Scheppers told Nersa on April 11 that such lender consent could flow only once the national transmission, trading, as well as import and export licences had been secured.

If granted by Nersa in the coming weeks, lender consent could follow by the end of April or early May, opening the way for the NTC to become effective by the end of June.

Scheepers reported that the transmission entity had already been functionally separated with its own management and board and had been registered as a State-owned company with the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission.

However, the DPE was still pursuing the appointment of additional independent directors to serve on the board, which would direct the NTC in line with the Companies Act and the Public Finance Management Act.

Several commentators have questioned the slow pace of board appointments, particularly given high level promises in this regard, including by President Cyril Ramaphosa who in his State of the Nation Address on February 9 said that the “National Transmission Company will soon be operational with an independent board”.

Scheppers also confirmed that a merger agreement had been concluded between Eskom Holdings and the NTC in line with the Companies Act, in terms of which the transmission business of Eskom Holdings, including assets comprising 170 substations and about 33 000 km of transmission lines, would be transferred to NTC once the suspensive conditions were met.

While the assets would be transferred, the debt attributed to NTC would continue to reside with Eskom Holdings, but reflected in the form of an equivalent inter-company loan with NTC.

The unbundled entity would assume responsibilities of system operator, transmission service provider, system planner, electricity trader, as well as exporter and importer.

The NTC would also assume responsibility for those power purchase agreements (PPAs) that had been concluded with Eskom as the designated single buyer.

Processes were, thus, under way to assign NTC as the buyer of electricity arising from PPAs in place with IPPs, as well as to amend the Government Support Framework Agreement to reflect the new position and to confirm the cost recovery mechanism.

Questioned on the rationale for the unbundling of NTC from distribution and generation, Scheppers said that such separation was seen as necessary to improve transparency regarding costs and to ensure that resources were appropriately allocated in a context of the need to connect much-needed new generation, most of which would arise from IPPs.

“We have a dire need for new generation capacity investments, and preferably this...