Civil Engineering August 2022 | Vol 30 No 7

A STRONG FOUNDATION FOR INFRASTRUCTURE SUCCESS ROCLA is South Africa’s leading manufacturer of pre-cast concrete products. Surpassing 100 years of product excellence. • Pipes • Culverts • Manholes • Poles • Retaining walls • Roadside furniture • Sanitation Including other related products within infrastructure development and related industries. Visit us on www.rocla.co.za for our nationwide branches finance partners, we are sure that we can make this transmis- sion a just one,” said De Ruyter. He pointed to two studies that have explored job creation through renewable energy in South Africa. The first, conducted by Co-Benefits, estimates that South Africa will be able to gen- erate 160 000 net new jobs through the roll-out of renewable energy – this is after deducting the loss of coal-related jobs. The second study, conducted by the World Bank, is even more bullish, estimating the creation of 300 000 net new jobs. “This is not something to be feared, it is something to be embraced in order to address unemployment in the coal belt which currently stands at one of the highest percentages [of unemployment] in the country, particularly youth unemploy- ment which is sitting in excess of 34%,” said the Eskom CEO. RESTRUCTURING ESKOM De Ruyter added that Eskom being the designated single buyer of electricity is one of the key constraints in attracting new private investment to generation. The restructuring of Eskom is therefore a key enabler for investment. “106 countries internationally have followed the same path that Eskom is following at the moment by unbundling its electricity utility from a monolithic vertically integrated utility into three businesses: generation, transmission and distribution,” he said. Eskom is following an aggressive timeline to unbundle the transmission business as quickly as possible, aiming to have an operationalised independent transmission system by the end of September 2022. The idea behind setting up an independent transmission entity is for that entity to act as a market operator that will facilitate the trading of electricity. By opening up the market and enabling the more liberalised trade between willing sellers and buyers, Eskom anticipates that there will be a rapid rollout of new generation capacity funded by the private sector. Mbele also noted that, “The unbundling of Eskom and the establishment of an independent transmission company will go a long way in removing the current complexities associated with our procurement processes for additional power generation capacity. The independent transmission company will enable the establish- ment of an open and competitive market for power generation.” “The private sector is waiting with bated breath for oppor- tunities to come and invest and if we put in place an enabling regulatory dispensation, then I am quite confident that we will see a flourishing uptake in investment that will also create jobs,” said De Ruyter. Prepared by Danielle Petterson Editor: Civil Engineering danielle@saice.org.za Civil Engineering  August 2022 39