Locked into coal: South Africa’s broken transition

Decommissioning of Duvha, one of 14 coal-fired power stations still anchoring the national grid, has been delayed to at least 2035. Photo: Ihsaan Haffejee. An unrehabilitated coal mine near the Duvha Power Station. Photo: Ihsaan Haffejee South Africa’s latest coal-fired power station, Kusile, took decades to finish building, cost hundreds of billions of rand and became one of the most controversial infrastructure projects in the country’s energy history. Now finally fully operational, it is being celebrated as a solution to a power crisis — even as the country has committed to ending its dependence on coal, the fossil fuel that powers it. The completion of Kusile’s sixth and final unit in 2025 marked the end of a construction programme that began in 2008, ballooned from an initial budget of about R80 billion to an estimated R161bn and became a byword for state capture, contractor corruption and engineering failure. For years, partially built units sat idle and completion dates were repeatedly missed. When it entered commercial operation in September 2025, national utility Eskom declared the end of its multi-decade build programme. Load-shedding, the rolling blackouts that blighted homes and businesses for more than a decade, had eased significantly and Kusile was held up as proof that the country had turned a corner. During an April visit to the power station, near Witbank/Emalahleni in the Nkangala District of Mpumalanga, President Cyril Ramaphosa described it as “the backbone of South Africa’s electricity supply”, together with Medupi Power Station in Limpopo. Both stations are designed for an operational lifespan of 50 years. This means that Kusile will retire in 2060, three decades beyond government commitments to phase down coal by 2030 to contribute to international efforts to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions. President Cyril Ramaphosa during an oversight visit at Kusile Power Station on April 10 2026. Photos: Government Communications Information System