Komati shutdown: Future bleak for communities as people lose jobs, money

Five months after South Africa’s 60-year-old Komati power plant in Mpumalanga shut its doors, the community around it say the Just Energy Transition they were promised is passing them by.

No stranger to resurrections, its 1 000 megawatt – a full stage of load shedding for the national grid – was first mothballed in 1987, returned to service in 2008, and finally closed at the end of 2022, as the first casualty of South Africa’s Just Energy Transition Investment Plan (JET-IP).

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Without the JET-IP, Komati’s future would have been even bleaker.

“We know there is a plan,” says local environmental activist Thomas Mnguni. “But we are not sure about what we are supposed to do right now before it takes off. People are struggling.”

A World Bank loan of $497 million (about R9 billion) was approved days after Komati shut its doors to repurpose the coal plant to produce renewable power. Nearby Hendrina is next in line to close, between this year and 2025, followed by Camden and Grootvlei.

Work in progress

Eskom admits this is a work in progress they must learn from. A discussion document on the socio-economic impact of Komati’s closure estimated that 4 166 jobs were at stake – 800 on site – as well as a cost of R1.71 billion to the gross domestic product.

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“It is untested territory,” Mnguni admits. “Coal is bad for the environment and it will have to go. But it can’t be phased out overnight. And communities’ needs cannot be ignored.”

It was inevitable that ageing power plants would have to close, due to the country’s climate change obligations. The JET-IP is a breakthrough attempt, with funding from the developed world, which created the climate crisis, to help wean developing nations off coal.

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Step one of the Komati plan is to stabilise the local economy with an investment of about R6.7 billion across 11 interventions, in response to an expected income loss of R19 million per annum by households in the area.

Eskom plans to install 150MW of solar, 70MW wind, 150MW of battery storage and an asynchronous condenser in the first phase.

There are short-term jobs available in alien vegetation removal and beneficiation, as well as agrivoltaic crop farming using mine-affected water. Then it’s on to skilling people at the new Komati Training Facility, to be established in partnership with Cape Peninsula University of Technology.

What about the contractors?

But the Komati experience has shown that closing down coal in South Africa will not be easy. And that Eskom workers are not the most vulnerable when a power plant closes. It is the adjacent economy that suffers most.

Eskom claims employees resigned, retired or were transferred and, by 2020, only 276 people still worked on site. Edward Nyambi, ANC ward councillor for Komati in Steve Tshwete local municipality and a former contractor, says Mpumalanga is coal country.

“If you are not a miner or work at Eskom, you are a contractor, selling food or other services to the coal economy.”

He is not aware of anyone directly consulting about the closures. Such meetings were mostly held in Middelburg, almost 50km away.

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“It was whispered that the plant will close down, but no-one wanted to believe it,” he says.

Nomsa Dlamini, a ward committee member, says people are simply waiting for things to happen, and there is no income.

“I see no programmes taking off. I don’t know when it will be coming.”

Little understanding

Environmental justice nongovernmental organisation Groundwork found the Komati community felt excluded from “the challenges of decommissioning”.

Michelle Cruywagen, the just transition and coal campaign manager, says people are outraged that only one meeting was held in Komati itself – on 4 November, after the closure.

Nyambi says the community is beginning to understand that coal must end, but it is jobs that are top of mind.

“If this Just Energy Transition is to succeed, people must be assured there are jobs after coal is gone. We are not seeing the plan just yet.”

– yolandig@citizen.co.za