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Upheaval Is Coming to South Africa Over the Shift Away From Coal

Plant closures put tens of thousands of jobs at risk in one of the most coal-dependent regions on Earth. 

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The Komati Power Station, due to be decommissioned in the next two years.

The Komati Power Station, due to be decommissioned in the next two years.

Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg

A photograph in the entrance hall at Komati Power Station shows the plant in better times, its nine generating units belching steam and smoke into the night sky.

Those days are never coming back: Komati’s sole remaining working unit is facing closure within two years under plans by state power utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. to shut about a quarter of its coal-fired capacity by 2030. Next door at the Goedehoop mine, arrays of solar panels line the main access road, a sign of what may be to come for South Africa’s coal belt.