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        <title>Polity.org.za | Real Economy</title>
        <description><![CDATA[Terence Creamer is the Editor of Engineering News and a Deputy Editor for Mining Weekly.]]></description>
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            <title>Big and small pictures</title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/big-and-small-pictures-2026-05-29</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Much has been written in recent weeks about the geopolitical factors now driving the energy transition. Particular attention has been given to how the attack on Iran by the US and Israel, which precipitated yet another energy crisis when the Strait of Hormuz was inevitably choked, is amplifying the benefits of the ongoing shift to renewables-led electrification.]]></description>
            <author>Terence Creamer</author>
            <category>REAL ECONOMY: ENERGY TRANSITION</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
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            <title>Risks to reform</title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/risks-to-reform-2026-05-22</link>
            <description><![CDATA[The economic reform agenda has emerged as the defining feature of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s presidency, especially the reforms under way to open the electricity and freight logistics markets to competition. It has been pursued largely out of necessity, as many of the theoretical risks associated with monopoly structures materialised in the form of devastating loadshedding and crippling price hikes and a threat of a near collapse of the port and rail systems.]]></description>
            <author>Terence Creamer</author>
            <category>REAL ECONOMY: ECONOMIC REFORM</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
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            <title>Don’t waste the crisis</title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/dont-waste-the-crisis-2026-05-15</link>
            <description><![CDATA[South Africa is experiencing its third energy crisis of this decade. While electricity loadshedding has been a threat for far longer, the most extreme phase was definitely during 2022 and 2023, when protracted power cuts were a daily, sometimes twice daily, misery. That confidence-sapping period was fully self-inflicted and avoidable, but policy uncertainty, asset mismanagement, project delays and deep-seated corruption combined toxically to leave residents and businesses in the dark and an economy floundering.]]></description>
            <author>Terence Creamer</author>
            <category>REAL ECONOMY: ENERGY SECURITY</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
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            <title>Policy conundrum</title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/policy-conundrum-2026-05-08</link>
            <description><![CDATA[At the start of South Africa’s democratic era, the availability of cheap coal-fired electricity emerged as the country’s main instrument for attracting investors. It seems almost unbelievable now, but when loadshedding first started, government still viewed the disruption as temporary and continued to market South Africa as an investment destination for electricity guzzling facilities. That mindset eventually made way to reality, and close observers habitually questioned why Eskom did not simply move to cut supply to the smelters; particularly ones with secret deals of questionable commercial value.]]></description>
            <author>Terence Creamer</author>
            <category>REAL ECONOMY: ELECTRICITY DEALS</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 08 May 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
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            <title>Supply lines</title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/supply-lines-2026-05-01</link>
            <description><![CDATA[South Africa has not escaped the fuel price shocks associated with disruptions to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz energy corridor and the damage to refinery and other infrastructure in the Gulf. And while it is difficult to fully assess the economic impacts, these are likely to be painful. Already, the International Monetary Fund has downgraded South Africa’s 2026 growth outlook to only 1% from its pre-war projection of 1.4%, and the South African Reserve Bank is definitely scanning the horizon for any rise in inflation expectations. The bank, which is now targeting 3% inflation, with a one percentage point tolerance band on either side, is also unlikely to shy away from hiking interest rates should it believe such threats to be real.]]></description>
            <author>Terence Creamer</author>
            <category>REAL ECONOMY: FUEL SUPPLY</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 01 May 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
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            <title>Full disclosure</title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/full-disclosure-2026-04-24</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Given its recent history, the fact that Eskom is even able to contemplate entering into a 62c/kWh tariff deal with the ferrochrome industry is remarkable. It is a clear indication of how far the utility has come from the dark period of daily (sometimes twice daily) loadshedding, which demoralised the nation and made South Africa a no-go zone for investors. CEO Dan Marokane underlined this point when announcing on April 10 that it had concluded agreements with the Glencore-Merafe Chrome Venture and Samancor Chrome on a five-year tariff dispensation following difficult negotiations on the terms and conditions.]]></description>
            <author>Terence Creamer</author>
            <category>REAL ECONOMY: FERROCHROME DEAL</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
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            <title>Big lingering questions</title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/big-lingering-questions-2026-04-17</link>
            <description><![CDATA[During the most recent energy crisis – triggered by attacks by the US and Israel on Iran that resulted in the near closure of the Strait of Hormuz energy corridor ahead of a tenuous ceasefire – one could argue South Africa took some decisions aimed at containing the threats, and creating space to consider the next steps. Presumably under the direction of the task team created by President Cyril Ramaphosa, government moved to ease the immediate financial pain by cutting fuel levies, in line with the actions of several of its peers.]]></description>
            <author>Terence Creamer</author>
            <category>REAL ECONOMY: ENERGY POLICY</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
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            <title>Power play</title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/power-play-2026-04-10</link>
            <description><![CDATA[A stand-out statement in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s February 12 State of the Nation Address (SoNA) was the following: “We are restructuring Eskom and establishing a fully independent State-owned transmission entity. This entity will have ownership and control of transmission assets and be responsible for operating the electricity market. Given the importance of this restructuring for the broader reform of the electricity sector, I have established a dedicated task team under the National Energy Crisis Committee to address various issues relating to the restructuring process, including clear timeframes for its phased implementation. It will report to me within three months.” The remarks were viewed as particularly significant mainly because they contradicted an unbundling plan announced by Electricity and Energy Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa only a few weeks earlier and which arose from Eskom’s internal deliberations on the future of its unbundling.]]></description>
            <author>Terence Creamer</author>
            <category>REAL ECONOMY: ELECTRICITY</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 10 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
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            <title>Time to get serious</title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/time-to-get-serious-2026-04-03</link>
            <description><![CDATA[The discussion about the future of South Africa's domestic oil refinery fleet is a long and complicated one. It has naturally flared again because of the security of supply concerns associated with recent disruptions to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. This has brought to the fore how little domestic crude refining capacity actually remains in place, with only Natref and the Astron refinery still operational in a fleet that, at one point, had a nameplate of over 700 000 bl/d when the coal- and gas-to-liquids refineries are included.]]></description>
            <author>Terence Creamer</author>
            <category>REAL ECONOMY: ENERGY POLICY</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 03 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
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            <title>Performance focus</title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/performance-focus-2026-03-27</link>
            <description><![CDATA[That many of South Africa’s 257 municipalities are in crisis is not in question. Also painfully clear is that many metropolitan councils, which oversee the country’s six largest cities of Johannesburg, Cape Town, eThekwini, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni, Nelson Mandela Bay, Buffalo City and Mangaung, are facing governance and delivery problems that were almost unthinkable a few decades ago. The economic and social consequences of this reality are beyond serious.]]></description>
            <author>Terence Creamer</author>
            <category>REAL ECONOMY: METRO COUNCILS</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
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