Anglo American calls for public-private collaboration to unlock energy investment

Anglo American says closer collaboration between government and the private sector is critical to unlocking energy investment.

The company's Chief Projects and Development Officer, Alison Atkinson, says while Africa’s energy generation capacity is improving, electricity transmission remains a major constraint.

The calls for policy certainty in the energy sector come as government moves ahead with plans to unbundle Eskom into three separate units: generation, transmission, and distribution.

Under the revised plan, however, the National Transmission Company South Africa will remain a subsidiary of Eskom Holdings and will continue to own the transmission assets.

The roadmap has been opposed by sections of the business sector, which believe it still presents significant complexity.

Atkinson is among the delegates attending the final day of the Mining Indaba in Cape Town.

“You're always going to need the national infrastructure, but the cost of energy, if it's not liberalised, will only go up. And in terms of investment and in terms of some of the decisions that are made, if it's around critical minerals, if it's around mining to refineries - all that comes into play. And if you can actually manage that cost through these mechanisms, it means those investment decisions at a global scale come back to Southern Africa.”