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Mail & Gaurdian

Editorial: Crocodile tears from the coalface

Pumping limited resources into a project that is predominantly meant to extend dirty coal energy in South Africa is not what local communities and the climate needs.

Apology

On 31 July 2020, the Mail & Guardian published an article with the headline “Eskom cancels dodgy R100m tender”. The headline was false and no contract was ever cancelled between…

Medupi Power Station is a dry-cooled coal-fired power station being built by Eskom near Lephalale in Limpopo province, South Africa. The name chosen for the station, Medupi, is a Sepedi word for “rain that soaks parched lands”.

The story of SA’s biggest power plant, and its little town

Before Big Coal, Lephalale was a small town with little water and few jobs. Two power plants have changed it

Graphic: John McCann

Build infrastructure to support the fourth industrial revolution

Technology has the potential to solve many of the country’s social problems such as electricity production and the eradication of pit latrines

Lights out: Kendal power station is being put under pressure by the environmental department because it continues to release more pollutants than is legally permitted.

Polluting power plant faces closure

The environment department has lost patience with Eskom’s defiance of air pollution regulations

(John McCann/ M&G)

Coal divestment hits South Africa

COMMENT If you’re a global mining giant, you want out of coal quick sticks for the simple reason that the major investment funds will no longer put their money into fossil fuels,…

$3.05-billion of the loan was dedicated to completing the Medupi coal-fired power station in Limpopo. (Madelene Cronje/M&G)

Cancel Eskom’s odious debt to the World Bank

It was never in the public interest to incur a debt of $3.75-billion to build coal-burning Medupi

With two units at Koeberg nuclear power station likely to be out of commission at the same time, Eskom will struggle to keep the lights on, said Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa.

Eskom: From fail to bail to auction block

A Greenpeace report outlines ways Eskom can adopt green technology and save itself financially

Energy drain: The giant pipe through Riversands transports 460 megalitres of sewage a day. (Oupa Nkosi/M&G)

Jozi’s biogas plant goes to waste

The Northern Works sewage plant could generate 4.2MW of power but is operating at 20% capacity

Phakamani Hadebe had been in the role for a little over a year. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

Hadebe tries to allay fears of job losses in internal Eskom memo

"One of the questions that I hear being asked most often, is: ‘Will I still have a job in this turnaround of Eskom?’," the memo from Hadebe read

Medupi power station. (Madelene Cronjé)

Utility vows to complete Medupi and Kusile stations

The power plants have come in over budget and way behind schedule

$3.05-billion of the loan was dedicated to completing the Medupi coal-fired power station in Limpopo. (Madelene Cronje/M&G)

Eskom’s Medupi and Kusile to cost R36bn to complete, will not be halted — Mabuza

​Construction on the issue-ridden Medupi and Kusile power stations, which began in 2007 and 2008, will go ahead

(Oupa Nkosi/M&G)

Eskom cannot rule out more rolling blackouts in coming months

The power utility is facing a myriad of problems, warning it cannot rule out the continued possibility of load-shedding for the coming 6-12 months

The late Pravin Gordhan. (Oupa Nkosi)

Energy sector favours home-grown help for Eskom

​Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan had been forced to give up his plan to import technical assistance for Eskom from Rome

$3.05-billion of the loan was dedicated to completing the Medupi coal-fired power station in Limpopo. (Madelene Cronje/M&G)

More power to greenfield thinking

Eskom put its future into just two megaplants, a handful of contractors and a single energy coal which some of our banks will no longer finance.

File photo: Oupa Nkosi

Budget notes from the bathroom

Run your home like a country and you’ll soon learn how to hold the government accountable

Kendal power station pumps out toxic fumes from its two tall flue-gas stacks because maintenance has not been done. (Mujahid Safodien/AFP)

Pollution kills as power plants fail

Despite admitting that pollutants from its plants are killing people, a cash-strapped Eskom says it cannot afford to comply with environmental laws

(John McCann/M&G)

Medupi and Kusile: Costly and faulty

A perfect storm of factors has left Eskom operating on the edge and South Africans facing more power cuts in the coming weeks

Eye of the storm: Unusual meterological events such as severe dust storms, heatwaves, droughts and floods are a result of people’s scant regard for Earth’s fragile ecosystems. (Li Chunqing/VCG via Getty Images)

Age of environmental breakdown

We’re driving the collapse of our planet at an unprecedented scale, threatening human society. And little is being done about it

Labour fears that the unbundling of Eskom into three entities will result in job losses. Members of Cosatu marched to demand that the budget speech takes their views into account. (Oupa Nkosi/M&G)

Dissatisfied workers a real threat to power utility and economy

While Eskom goes from one controversy to the next, the dissatisfaction of its workforce poses a real danger to Eskom’s ability to keep the lights on