By Jennifer Zabasajja, Paul Burkhardt and Loni Prinsloo.
A South African government delegation received “firm commitments” from Chinese companies to help realise more than 100 gigawatts of new power capacity over the next decade, the nation’s electricity minister said.
Officials from state power utility Eskom, the Industrial Development Corp and the Development Bank of Southern Africa met representatives from “a mix of state-owned companies and the private sector” on their trip to Beijing, Electricity and Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said an interview with Bloomberg Television on Tuesday.
“There have been firm commitments just setting up industries, transformer capacity and the manufacturing of wires, pylons, inverters and smart meters,” he said from the Chinese capital. “A few of them are expanding their already existing footprint.”
Africa’s biggest economy is expanding its electricity infrastructure, as coal-fired power plants are gradually retired, and increasing its use of renewable energy. As part of the overhaul, Eskom is being split into separate generation, transmission and distribution businesses, while an independent system operator is planned to manage the grid, electricity trading and access for private power producers.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa backed the latest draft of that plan last week.
Various government programs are under way to attract private sector investment.
“We’ve already packaged the projects, including rolling out the 14 500 kilometres (9 000 miles) transmission expansion and modernisation,” Ramokgopa said, adding that the opportunity can serve as a foothold for companies looking to expand into Africa. “South Africa is a place to start, so we are aggregating all of these actors and from there they can spread into the continent.”
Europe, which already participates in South Africa’s energy industry, will be the next region of focus to draw investment, according to the minister. Those conversations have already started,” he said.
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