MCCI will make Hendrina Power Station work! 

Tshwanelo Rakaibe, together with her CSIR colleagues and representatives from the Eskom Office for a Just Energy Transition, hosted a virtual meeting with Moeketsi Mpotu and Anna-Marth Ott from the Middelburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The aim of the meeting was to discuss a framework for Hendrina and Grootvlei. 

The total lack of knowledge and economic insight of the consultants who draw up these frameworks is worrying. It appears that they are relying on anecdotal evidence rather than actual economic data and information on intensive energy users, GDP, export data or even number of employed persons, available from the Mpumalanga Department of Finance or at Eskom itself, as a basis for their investigations. 

Extract from the Meeting Notes: the CSIR had pointed out that a stakeholder had mentioned that Mpumalanga may NOT be well positioned to develop assembly/manufacturing plants, as the main manufacturing and assembly plants are located in provinces such as GP, KZN and parts of the Eastern Cape. The point of view of all stakeholders is more important than the economic survival of our region. 

MCCI and its members should lobby to repurpose Hendrina ourselves. This CSIR project and academic study will be as useful as the one done for Komati. What was the impact of the decommissioning of Komati Power Station on Koornfontein? These researchers appears not to have what baseload is, what impact it has on manufacturing and the economy in how employment relates to the repurposing of Hendrina. 

Middelburg will survive and we will generate our own baseload power for every manufacturer, but we will thrive if we repurpose Hendrina to its former glory. The closure of Komati is a bitter pill to swallow. No one is as deaf as those who do not want to hear.