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Toyota South Africa Motors (TSAM) has suspended vehicle production at its Prospecton plant, south of Durban, on the back of heavy rains and flooding in KwaZulu-Natal.

A spokesperson for TSAM says the plant “incurred some flooding in areas”, with operations halted since Monday evening.

“Efforts geared towards a safe start-up, after the water has been cleared, are in place.”

TSAM produces the Corolla Cross, Fortuner, Hiace Ses’fikile minibus and Hilux bakkie for the local market, while some models are also exported. The Prospecton operations also hosts the Hino truck assembly plant.

Toyota is the sales leader in the local market, and the Hilux the country’s best-selling vehicle.

The Motor Industry Staff Association (MISA) noted on Wednesday that was “devastated by the impact” the flooding in Durban and surrounding areas would have on the retail motor industry, which was still battling to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.

MISA operations CEO Martlé Keyter said the organisation would donate R90 700 to the Gift of the Givers Foundation, which was busy providing blankets and warm meals to displaced communities.

President Cyril Ramaphosa visited the province on Wednesday. It is estimated that more than 250 people died in the floods.

DURBAN PORT GRADUALLY RESUMES OPERATIONS

Transnet gradually resumed operations at the Port of Durban early on Wednesday morning, following a suspension of service across the port’s terminals on Monday evening.

Operations were halted following flooding in and around the port precinct.

The Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) said it was working with Transnet, the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government, eThekwini municipality and Eskom to stabilise operations at the harbour.

Priority interventions include repairing Bayhead road, which is the main access route to the container terminals at the port and Island View, and investigating alternative access roads into the port while Bayhead road is under construction.

The DPE said the cargo that would be prioritised for evacuation from the port on Wednesday included food, medical supplies and petroleum products.

Shipping, which was suspended as a result of extensive debris caused by the adverse weather, is expected to resume once it has been established that it is safe to do so.

Transnet National Ports Authority, using its helicopters, noted that it had rescued 80 people trapped in various flooded areas around eThekwini on Tuesday.

It also reported that there had been no damage to the pipeline infrastructure, and that Transnet Pipelines would continue to supply fuel that was already in the system into the inland market.

Transnet Freight Rail said it was assessing the rail network in Durban and surrounding areas to determine the extent of damage before resuming train services into and out of the port.

The North Coast, South Coast and main lines from Durban to Pietermaritzburg remain closed.

In Richards Bay, operations are not suspended, but the terminals are operating less efficiently, with challenges experienced in handling wet cargo.

TRUCKS BACKING UP ON N3

Transnet said on Tuesday that it had requested customers to refrain from sending trucks to the Port of Durban. A number of trucks were, however, already on their way to the harbour, prior to news of the floods breaking.

Road Freight Association CEO Gavin Kelly on Wednesday reported that there were “already long queues of trucks along the N3”.

“The Marianhill plaza has a backlog of 10 km all the way to Hammarsdale.”

Kelly said it appeared as if this queue had now afforded criminals the opportunity to loot the trucks.

“Access roads around the Port of Durban have been damaged. Container yards, truck depots and trucks themselves have been flooded and damaged. The area is really a disaster at the moment,” he added.

Kelly said the flooding would cause delivery disruptions in the flow of imported goods. However, he did not foresee any shortages in foodstuffs and fuel.

“The association has advised members to delay...

Steel producer ArcelorMittal South Africa has initiated feasibility studies for two 100 MW renewable energy projects to supply electricity to its existing facilities in Gauteng and the Western Cape.

The studies should be finalised during 2023/2024, the company said in a statement.

CEO Kobus Verster indicated that the decision was motivated both by the group’s objective of lower the carbon intensity of production and to reduce its reliance on Eskom, which continues to resort to regular load-shedding and whose tariffs have risen sharply over the past decade and a bit.

The study had also been facilitated, however, by regulatory changes in South Africa, allowing sub-100 MW projects to proceed without a licence, including projects that sell and wheel electricity through the grid.

ArcelorMittal South Africa is the latest large electricity consumer to announce plans to invest in renewable electricity since the reform, with Minerals Council South Africa indicating that its members have a pipeline of projects with a collective capacity of nearly 4 000 MW.

It also comes as the JSE-listed company considers technical options, including a scrap-based option, for the possible reopening of the Saldanha Steel mill in the Western Cape, which was mothballed in 2019.

“The alternative energy source will also offer more energy security by enabling the ArcelorMittal South Africa plants to be less dependent on costly electricity supply from the national grid which has significantly impacted business performance in recent years.”

The company said it would advance to the next stage with several pre-qualified experts to start and complete the development.

“Based on current information, the company expects to benefit from the projects by early 2025, although this could change as the feasibility study reveals more.”

Electricity utility Eskom will issue a request for proposals (RFP) “imminently” for the supply of gas to the Ankerlig and Gourikwa open-cycle gas turbine (OCGT) power stations in the Western Cape, which currently produce electricity using diesel.

CEO André de Ruyter confirmed the preparation for the RFP documentation during a load-shedding briefing on April 13, and indicated that the tender would be published soon on the utility’s tender portal.

He also indicated that the market would need to take account of the fact that Eskom still intended to operate the OCGT plants at a relatively low capacity factor, which was unlikely to justify the cost of a floating storage and regasification unit and new pipeline infrastructure.

Bidders would, thus, be encouraged to tailor their offers to that reality, even though Eskom has been using the power stations outside of peak periods in recent years to limit the intensity of load-shedding, or to enable it to bolster pumped storage reserves.

“We are in the final throes of being able to prepare that submission to the market and that should reach the market imminently,” he said, indicating that Eskom would entertain containerised liquefied natural gas (LNG) solutions should these be offered and if they met its needs.

There was no discussion about the price and availability of LNG, the demand for which is expected to surge in light of moves across Europe to wean itself off piped Russian gas following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

De Ruyter said Eskom also continued to consider prospects for repowering some of its decommissioning power stations in Mpumalanga using gas-to-power technology.

“We are currently looking at a variety of different options, including on a similar basis to making available Mpumalanga land.

“[In other words], testing the appetite of the market to also install gas turbines at our existing coal stations given the fact that some of them are in quite close proximity to the main gas transmission infrastructure from Mozambique.”

However, De Ruyter stressed that, besides Eskom’s balance sheet limitations, there were also several regulatory and technical obstacles that would have to be overcome before it could approach the market for bids.

To address its funding constraints, Eskom could consider either a public-private partnership model, or opening up the sites entirely to independent power producers.

Work was still also required to assess the value of brownfield power station conversions, which could prove technically more challenging than greenfield projects.

In addition, the efficiency losses associated with operating a gas turbine at altitude would have to be considered.

Given that such projects were also likely to exceed the 100 MW threshold for embedded generation projects to proceed without a licence, several regulatory hurdles would also need to be overcome, including the securing of a Section 34 Ministerial determination that was aligned with the Integrated Resource Plan of 2019 (IRP2019).

In February, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe said he expected Eskom to make an application for a Section 34 determination to facilitate gas-to-power generation at some of the coal power stations scheduled for decommissioning.

Mantashe indicated that the determination would be “in addition” to the 3 000 MW allocation for gas-to-power in the IRP2019, which outlines the new electricity generation to be introduced to the system by 2030.

“There is, therefore, quite a regulatory road for us to travel before these plants can be either repurposed or can be made available for private investors to use as a base for installing their own merchant gas-fired plants,” De Ruyter added.

The International Energy Agency’s (IEA’s) Sustainable Recovery Tracker’s latest update shows that clean energy spending earmarked by governments in response to the Covid-19 crisis rose by 50% over the past five months to more than $710-billion worldwide.

However, “troubling” imbalances persisted between regions.

The unprecedented amount of enacted spending was more than 40% higher than the global green spending contained in the stimulus packages that governments enacted following the global financial crisis in 2008.

The IEA reported on April 12 that advanced economies accounted for the bulk of this effort, with more than $370-billion earmarked for spending prior to the end of 2023 – a level of short-term government spending that would help keep the door open for the IEA’s global pathway to net-zero emissions by 2050.

Across emerging and developing economies, however, the IEA noted that the total amount of fiscal resources being dedicated to sustainable recovery measures was about 10% of the amount dedicated in advanced economies, reflecting their very different financial and economic circumstances.

In emerging and developing economies, about $52-billion of sustainable recovery spending is planned by the end of 2023 – well short of what is needed to reach net-zero goals.

The IEA believes the gap is unlikely to narrow in the near term, as governments with already limited fiscal means now face the challenge of maintaining food and fuel affordability for their citizens amid the surge in commodity prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Countries where clean energy is at the heart of recovery plans are keeping alive the possibility of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050, but challenging financial and economic conditions have undermined public resources in much of the rest of the world,” said IEA executive director Dr Fatih Birol, adding that international cooperation would be essential to change these clean energy investment trends, especially in emerging and developing economies where the need was greatest.

Even in advanced economies, some of the earmarked funds were at risk of not reaching the market within their envisaged timelines, the IEA noted. Delays in setting up government programmes, ongoing supply chain disruptions, labour shortages and financial uncertainty have clogged project pipelines, the agency stated.

In addition, consumer-facing measures – such as incentives for building retrofits and electric vehicles – were reportedly struggling to reach a wider audience because of issues including red tape and a lack of information.

“Governments that can remove red tape and quickly set up effective programmes will be the ones to reap the benefits and position themselves in the new global energy economy that is emerging . . . The world still needs to massively expand its clean energy deployment efforts throughout this decade, first and foremost in developing economies, if we are going to preserve the hope of limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5 °C,” Birol said.

Rising fossil fuel prices, which have been exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, have pushed governments both to enact immediate measures to make energy more affordable and to explore efforts to reduce fossil fuel dependency, the IEA said.

The agency’s tracking showed that emergency affordability support by governments globally for households and businesses had reached about $270-billion since the start of the northern hemisphere winter season last year.

However, many of the measures most effective at reducing oil and gas demand – such as installing heat pumps and expanding the use of public transport, bike lanes and high-speed rail – have not yet received the needed level of government support to date, the IEA said.

Overall, public spending on sustainable energy remained a small proportion of the unprecedented $18.2-trillion in fiscal outflows that governments have dedicated to countering the economic impacts of Covid-19.

Nonetheless, the IEA es...

State-owned electricity utility Eskom has initiated a bidding process for the leasing of generation land in Mpumalanga to independent power producers (IPPs) and CEO André de Ruyter indicates that there is sufficient grid capacity available to support renewables projects with a combined capacity of about 1 000 MW.

Speaking following the resumption of load-shedding on April 11, De Ruyter said the request for proposals (RFP) documentation had been issued on April 8, with a closing date for submissions of April 29.

The land release, he added, was part of Eskom’s response to the current shortage of generation capacity, which, until addressed, placed the country at an ongoing risk of rotational power cuts. The generation shortfall is estimated to be between 4 000 MW and 6 000 MW.

It was also aligned with a recent reform allowing sub-100 MW private generation projects to proceed without a licence, including projects that will sell electricity to non-related third parties and used the grid to wheel power. Eskom expects the reform to yield about 4 000 MW in the coming few years.

The land being made available through the RFP was adjacent to Eskom’s power stations in Mpumalanga and where there was “sufficient grid connection capacity” to connect potential wind and solar projects.

Grid connection capacity has emerged as a key constraint, with capacity having been all but exhausted in the Northern, Eastern and Western Cape provinces, which are also home to some of the country’s best wind and solar resources.

“This is the first-of-its-kind-type of process that we are running [and] we anticipate that we will get some 1 000 MW as a consequence of this process,” De Ruyter said, indicating that the first new capacity could be introduced in about 18 to 24 months.

Eskom estimates the potential generation capacity for the different land parcels being made available to be 0.45MW/ha and confirms that high-level grid access capacity studies have been conducted for the different sites, which surround Majuba and Tutuka.

De Ruyter also confirmed that the first battery energy storage system (BESS) contracts had been awarded at the end of March for 199 MW/832 MWh of capacity across eight sites.

The R5-billion BESS investments are being supported with finance provided by the World Bank and the projects have been licensed by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa.

“We are really looking forward to those projects proceeding and that will also help us significantly with grid stability going forward.”

De Ruyter said that the enquiry for Phase 2 of the BESS roll-out would also proceed, together with efforts to build additional pumped hydro storage.

Both storage solutions, he added, would play an ever-increasing role in the electricity supply industry as a complement to higher levels of variable renewable energy.

PROCUREMENT PROGRESS?

De Ruyter also welcomed the progress being made by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) and the IPP Office in procuring new capacity, including through the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) and the much-delayed Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (RMIPPPP).

The 25 wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) projects named as preferred bids in October from REIPPPP bid window five (BW5) could add nearly 2 600 MW of additional capacity in 2023/24, should they reach financial close at the end of April as scheduled.

There are concerns, however, that some of the BW5 projects may not be in a position to close on time, owing to pricing and supply-chain difficulties that have arisen since the projects were bid and which have intensified recently as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has increased demand for renewables components elsewhere, and recent Covid lockdowns in China.

De Ruyter said he could not comment on whether all the projects would close but reinforced the critical importance of introducing new capacity as soon as possible, parti...

Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Minister Barbara Creecy has moved to appeal parts of a landmark High Court judgment recognising air pollution as a violation of the Constitutional rights of citizens living in the Highveld Priority Area – a 31 000 km2 region that includes parts of Mpumalanga and Gauteng.

The judgment was handed down by Judge Colleen Collis on March 18, after environmental justice group groundWork and Mpumalanga community organisation Vukani approached the court for an order stipulating that regulations be published to govern the air-quality improvements required to meet the goals of a plan published in 2012, yet never implemented.

The judge found that poor air quality in the area, which encompasses eMalahleni, Middelburg, Secunda, Standerton, Edenvale, Boksburg and Benoni, was in “breach of residents’ section 24(a) Constitutional right to an environment that is not harmful to their health and well-being”.

It is common cause that air quality in the area is “poor and dangerous”, owing to the fact that it is home to 12 of Eskom’s coal-fired power stations, as well as Sasol’s coal-to-liquid fuels refinery, in Secunda.

The judgment also declared that Creecy had a legal duty to prescribe regulations under Section 20 of the National Environmental Management: Air Quality Act (AQA) and gave her 12 months to “prepare, initiate, and prescribe” such regulations to implement and enforce the 2012 Highveld Priority management plan.

In announcing her decision to seek leave to appeal, Creecy stressed that only those portions of a judgment relating to the interpretation of Section 20 of the AQA would be appealed.

She also insisted that the appeal was not designed to defer the drafting of regulations and that the drafting process would, thus, continue in parallel.

“It is not my intention to use the appeal process to delay the drafting of regulations and that process will continue independently of any appeal.

“Indeed, I regard it as important, to ensure that the process of regulation-making is as inclusive and cooperative as possible,” Creecy states in her affidavit.

The appeal, she adds, will be confined to the court’s interpretation of Section 20, as outlined in the judgment.

“The appeal against the four orders identified all have in common that they are predicated upon an interpretation of Section 20 of the AQA which holds that I am not merely vested

with a discretion to prescribe regulations, but am under a duty to do so,” the affidavit reads.

She argues that a “proper interpretation” of Section 20 has wider significance, because there are several statutes within the environmental sphere, and for which the Minister is responsible, that contain similarly worded regulation-making powers.

“It is therefore important, beyond this case, to determine whether these powers also entail not merely a discretion, but also a duty,” the Minister states.

South Africa’s third National Planning Commission (NPC) has made implementation of the National Development Plan (NDP) its top priority for its five-year term, despite the fact that implementation of the plan does not fall directly within its mandate.

Appointed by President Cyril Ramaphosa in December, the commission acknowledges that there has been insufficient progress in implementing the NDP, which was adopted ten years ago with the goals of ending extreme poverty and reducing unemployment and inequality by 2030.

In fact, deputy chairperson Professor Tinyiko Maluleke noted during a briefing that poverty, hunger, inequality and unemployment were all on the rise and that there was a “palpable sense of social disenchantment with the scale and speed of progress made against the NDP targets and priorities”.

“I couldn’t agree more with those among us, including our chair, Minister Mondli Gungubele, who have suggested that the third NPC has no more than three priorities: priority number one is implementation, number two is implementation and number three is implementation,” Maluleke said.

He added that the NPC, thus, had no choice but to focus attention on implementation, despite those cautioning “against misdirecting ourselves and misunderstanding our mandate”.

“There is, of course, a reason why we are called the National Planning Commission and not the National Implementation Commission.

“But if implementation is slow or non-existent, planning alone, is clearly insufficient.”

The third NPC should at least be able to explain why implementation had not occurred, he added.

“This may be the most critical thing that this NPC has to establish.

“We have to probe why it has been so hard to prioritise, coordinate, cohere, cascade down, streamline and pinpoint the necessary catalytic interventions necessary to embed and institutionalise the NDP within the departmental, provincial, and municipal plans.”

This stance was amplified by Gungubele, who said that, while the NPC’s focus must be on long-term planning, it was equally important that it understood how implementation took place and what the obstacles were so as to “provide guidance as we get back on course to meeting our long-term goals”.

The new NPC would seek to use its convening power to “plug” itself into existing initiatives, including those under way in response to Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address call for the crafting of a new consensus on the economy within 100 days.

Three workstreams had been created to support its task of “calling the country back to the NDP”, including one that will focus on an ‘expanded, inclusive and fairer economy’.

The other two would pursue initiatives under the themes of ‘enhancing quality of life’ and ‘building an active citizenry, a capable state and leadership’.

Transnet CEO Portia Derby has confirmed that the State freight logistics group is preparing to procure a significant number of locomotives again, after having halted purchases under the “irregular and unlawful” R50-billion ’10-64’ programme.

Derby tells Engineering News that, while a settlement agreement has been reached with General Electric, processes are still under way to secure settlements with China North Rail, China South Rail and Bombardier Transportation.

Transnet has taken delivery of 595 locomotives arising from the 2015 contract, representing 56% of the original order for 1 064 diesel and electric locomotives.

The procurement was halted in 2019 after irregularities and alleged corruption were unearthed, much of which was confirmed through evidence provided to the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into State Capture.

Transnet announced that it would be seeking “just end equitable settlements” with the four original equipment manufacturers.

General Electric was awarded a contract to supply 233 of the 465 diesel locomotives ordered, while China North Rail was contracted to supply the 232 balance. China South Rail was awarded a contract for 359 of the 599 electric locomotives ordered, with Bombardier Transportation to supply 240.

Derby says she is optimistic that settlements will be reached with the remaining three original equipment manufacturers and of proceeding with a new procurement process to close the capacity gap left by the fact that it could no longer proceed with the 10-64 programme.

The new tender is, thus, likely to be for at least 400 new locomotives and will be issued once all the necessary approvals have been secured.

Derby says every effort will be made to avoid the corruption, as well as the mistakes associated with the 10-64 procurement, including its lack of standardisation across the fleet.

Locomotive procurement, together with slot sales to third-party railway operators, is viewed as part of a broader strategy aimed at increasing the volume of freight that is moved on rail in South Africa.

The system has the theoretical nameplate to transport 250-million tons yearly, but volumes have never breached 226-million tons and have slumped in recent years as the service has been disrupted by both Covid and high levels of cable theft.

Volumes fell to 184-million tons in the 2020/21 financial year and while the figures are yet to be audited for 2021/22, it is likely that another decline will be reported.

The fall is partly attributed to the age and performance of the locomotive fleet, of which 77% was available for service as of March.

Of the fleet available for service currently, 57% is from the legacy fleet, while the remainder is from the newer fleet, including locomotives procured as part of the 10-64 programme and pre-10-64 procurement.

Derby says no decision has been taken regarding technology, stressing that electric locomotives should not be precluded simply because of the ongoing scourge of cable theft.

“There is no running away from it, we have to deal with the theft of cables,” Derby avers.

She also highlights that there are technical reasons why diesel locomotives cannot be used on certain parts of the network, including in certain tunnels.

While both technical and human security solutions are being introduced across the network, Derby believes at least part of the solution lies in ensuring that the rail is densified, including through the sale of slots.

“If we have trains running on a regular basis, the opportunity for theft will decrease.

“Once the long intervals between one train and the next is reduced, the risk factor for the thieves of either being caught or being killed rises dramatically,” she says, adding that the sale of slots will also introduce new entities with a direct interest in ensuring that cable theft is curbed.

Transnet has launched a bidding process for 16 rail slots, which will be sold ‘voetstoots’ to third-party operators for a period of two years on a take-or-pay basis. A...

With plans to increase the cargo-handling capability at the Port of Durban and to ease congestion by having fewer trucks on the road near the port, Transnet needs to improve rail capacity, as well ensure the infrastructure is safe and secure.

Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) container corridor managing executive Rudzani Ligege says there are plans to expand the port’s handling capacity from its current 2.9-million units a year to 11-million units a year.

“The essence of the growth of the port will need to be supported by rail. Rail plays a huge role in that growth.”

For this reason, TFR’s container corridor – which stretches over 700 km, from the Port of Durban to City Deep in Johannesburg and Rosslyn in Pretoria – plays a critical role in bulk logistics.

He notes that the eThekwini municipality “has made it very clear” that any growth at the Port of Durban should not be at the expense of tourism to the region – by having vast numbers of trucks crowding into Durban, especially around the harbour.

Operational activity on the KwaZulu-Natal rail cluster is predominantly for container, automotive, fuel and grain products.

However, TFR is being plagued by rampant destruction, vandalism and theft of mainly electrical infrastructure, including copper cables, signalling equipment, electricity itself and even rail fastening devices.

Without electrical infrastructure, and especially without the overhead contact cable (which powers electric locomotives), TFR cannot operate electric locomotives. Even operating diesel-electric locomotives becomes severely compromised without electrical signalling equipment, as manual authorisations become laborious and significantly reduce train speed on the network.

On April 7, TFR hosted an oversight trip at its Durban Container Terminal and surrounds. Engineering News witnessed first-hand the impacts of the lack of infrastructure.

For about 45 minutes, a TFR diesel-powered trolley had to wait, sitting idle on the track, before permission was granted to enter the network at Bayhead (not far from the Port of Durban).

Although the overhead electrical network was in place at the time, signalling and train-monitoring and tracking equipment were dysfunctional, requiring the trolley operator to phone the TFR central train-operating control centre, informing it where the trolley was and where it intended heading. This process was repeated at every signal junction, which was every few hundred metres.

The process of manual authorisation severely limits train speed and serves to distract locomotive drivers from their task – driving and operating a several-thousand-tonne train, which is transporting valuable cargo.

The issue of dysfunctional signalling and track monitoring equipment meant that trains passing through the Durban container complex take about four hours to do so, instead of the 30 minutes it is meant to take.

“We [are] supposed to be taking 18 hours from Durban to Johannesburg. [But] we [are currently] taking 36 hours, mainly due to [signals] not working and [cables] being stolen,” says Ligege.

So destructive is the issue of cable theft and electric trains sitting idle, that TFR is seeking to completely de-electrify some routes, with plans to only rely on diesel-electric locomotives.

However, vast sections of the Durban-to-Johannesburg container corridor cannot be de-electrified as a result of several lengthy tunnels, in which diesel engines are starved of oxygen and die as a result of ventilation issues. This means electric locomotives still have a critical role to play in terms of getting cargo to and from Durban and Johannesburg and could not simply be replaced by diesel, he explains.

Meanwhile, TFR is employing drones, as well as ground security personnel, to monitor crime hotspot areas.

Other issues disrupting its ability to operate efficiently and safely are settlement encroachments, community unrest, pedestrians and livestock walking on rail lines and the theft of non-electrical infrastructure.

TF...

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) and Telkom have reached an agreement to end the litigation over the high demand radio frequency spectrum licensing process.

Under the agreement, Telkom agreed to withdraw the legal application, while Icasa agreed to issue an Information Memorandum (IM) by June 30 for the licensing of the unsold sub-1 GHz lot from the International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) spectrum auction and any other IMT spectrum that is presently available for licensing, except for the spectrum currently set aside for the Wireless Open Access Network.

The two parties have been having discussions to bring an end to the ongoing litigation due to be heard from April 11 to 14.

Telkom Group CEO Serame Taukobong said that the settlement addresses Telkom’s principal complaints and provides challenger operators like Telkom further opportunity to acquire sub 1 spectrum to compete with established players.

“Telkom has, in good faith, entered into a forward-looking settlement, providing Icasa the opportunity to resolve current market challenges identified by competition authorities while allowing operators to focus on the business of providing superior service to their customers.”

Icasa will consider the spectrum holdings emanating from the recently concluded auction, including the imbalances in the sub-1 GHz bands, and the impact of the outcome of the auction on competition in the mobile market.

The authority intends to conclude the envisaged licensing process by the end of March 2023.

In addition, Icasa will undertake an inquiry into the existence of a secondary market for spectrum, which will consider the findings of the Mobile Broadband Services Inquiry, as well as the outcome of the recently concluded auction and any spectrum arrangements emanating therefrom.

The inquiry will include the assessment of whether there is a need for regulatory intervention.

“We are indeed happy to have reached this stage with Telkom. This is indeed an epitome of the power of cordial dialogue where everyone has the same vision of building an inclusive digital society. We look forward to a new chapter of our public interest regulatory work with this litigation finally behind us,” said Icasa chairperson Dr Keabetswe Modimoeng.