While South Africa has made considerable strides in addressing mine water challenges, several areas require improvement and focus to ensure that the country continues on a positive trajectory and that the future landscape of the local mining industry is vastly improved. Such areas include ensuring that the correct processes are in place, aligning implementation with research and adapting the regulatory environment to be more conducive to the treatment of mine-affected water.
The reforms under way in the freight rail sector are advancing at an impressive clip and should soon open the system to new private operators. However, there are warnings of a prohibitively high tariff outcome should the methodology outlined in the draft Network Statement be introduced.
An office to manage auctions of independent transmission projects could be set up at a leading South African development finance institution. Bloomberg reports that the Development Bank of Southern Africa is aiming to establish the office to bring in private funding into the deployment for the grid so as to help connect renewable generation to a network that needs to be expanded urgently to meet demand.
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The election storm, which has just past, carried with it developments that were at times entertaining, at times revealing and at times downright disconcerting. Now that it has passed, attention will turn to the governance arrangements that will follow in its wake.