Environment
South African City Built on Coal Confronts an Uncertain Future
Secunda was built 50 years ago as a company town for the Sasol fuel plant, which is now preparing to scale back operations.
The South African town of Secunda is home to Sasol Ltd’s synthetic fuel plant.
Photographer: Leon Sadiki/BloombergA 90 minute drive southeast of Johannesburg in the province of Mpumalanga lies a town built on coal. The Secunda synthetic fuel plant is run by Sasol Ltd., the world’s biggest fabricator of coal-based fuel. Its scale of production — made possible by technology utilized in Nazi-era Germany — enabled South Africa’s apartheid government to circumvent oil import sanctions.
It has also made Secunda the world’s largest single-point emitter of greenhouse gas.