“Combating corruption is a global responsibility that calls for the combined efforts of international organisations and the initiatives of dedicated individuals,” said the patron of the International Anti-Corruption Excellence (ACE) Award ceremony in Doha, Qatar, on December 14 2025.

The Amir of Qatar, His Highness Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani, attended the star-studded ceremony where Oxpeckers associates Andiswa Matikinca and Tatenda Chitagu were honoured for their cross-border investigation “On the Trail of Lithium Smugglers in Southern Africa, produced and published by Oxpeckers in April 2025.

The awards, organised and delivered by the Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption Centre supported by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, have over the years shone the light on the work of inspiring anti-corruption champions around the world, encouraging the implementation of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption across five categories.

The Oxpeckers representatives were the joint winners in the Innovation/Investigative Journalism category, alongside Mongabay’s Gloria Pallares Vinyoles from Spain who has led major cross-continental investigations exposing corruption in forest and carbon governance across Central Africa and Latin America. The category honours innovators who have developed effective tools contributing to the fight against corruption, with a focus on celebrating those who expose forms of corruption and their negative impact on communities worldwide.

Sharing the stage were the other 2025 winners: Drago Kos from Slovenia and Obiageli Ezekwesili from Nigeria for the Lifetime or Outstanding Achievement Award; Professor Nikos Passas from Greece and Marianne Camerer from South Africa for the Academic Research and Education Award; Marr Nyang from The Gambia and Matiullah Wesa from Afghanistan for the Youth Creativity and Engagement Award.

Corruption busters

Just one month before the ACE Awards, the Oxpeckers team also received the Vodacom Journalist of The Year Regional Award for the lithium smuggling investigation.

“This is what we do at Oxpeckers Investigative Environmental Journalism: continuously support young environmental journalists so that they can stand on the stage alongside the world’s corruption busters,” said proud Oxpeckers founding director Fiona Macleod.

Reflecting on the process that went into the investigation, Chitagu said it was one of the most complex stories he has worked on. “It really was risky, hence I had to go undercover. But this did not minimise the risk — imagine trying to infiltrate a smuggling cartel which has resources and mafia and state security agents at its disposal.

“If anything had gone awry, I could have gone into deep trouble,” he said.

Chitagu, who recently became an Oxpeckers associate, is an alumni of the Oxpeckers Training and Professional Support Programme supported by the FOJO Media Institute. Certain that the awards will propel his career as a journalist, Chitagu said, “It’s one thing to write about something, and another to realise that there are people who notice your work as a journalist and appreciate it.”

Full circle

For Matikinca, winning the ACE award was a full-circle moment since she joined Oxpeckers as a recent graduate in 2018 to become an intern for the #MineAlert platform, the region’s trusted open-data programme on extractives activities. She went on to become #MineAlert’s project manager and in January 2019 travelled to Dakar, Senegal, to attend the Publish What You Pay global assembly.

The global assembly brought together civil society coalitions and stakeholders from around the world to network, and to share their stories and successes around transparency and accountability in the extractives sector. This was where Matikinca first met fellow 2025 ACE Award laureate Obiageli Ezekwesili, Nigeria’s former federal minister of solid minerals and education, and co-founder and founding director of Transparency International.

This moment exemplifies Matikinca’s consistency and dedication to the work of transparency and accountability in the extractives sector.

Testament to the work of anti-corruption not being limited to age or gender, Matikinca said: “It is a great honour and privilege to be part of this year’s cohort alongside people who have experience spanning over 30 years in the fight to dismantle corruption across different sectors, when I have only been doing this work for just seven years and counting.”

Building on the momentum from the ACE Award, Matikinca said she aims to expand her investigative capacity by embarking on more collaborative cross-border reporting on corruption in natural resource governance, particularly in Southern Africa, and also working together with laureates from this year and previous years, advancing her work.

Oxpeckers journalists win international anti-corruption award was originally published in Oxpeckers Investigative Environmental Journalism on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Thousands of children have benefitted from support from community trusts like the Letsatsi Solar Park Trust, which has received more than R90-million since its inception over a decade ago. Photo: Motlatsi Mofokeng

When we first set out to investigate community trusts linked to Independent Power Producer (IPP) renewable energy projects across South Africa, we had no idea how little people knew about the work they do — or that they even exist, to begin with.

We started with a simple question: Are these trusts really making a difference?

To answer this, we visited one such trust, the Letsatsi Solar Park Trust in the Free State, to understand its operations and the impact it has on the communities it serves.

One of its key beneficiaries, Otsile Bokamoso, is an after-school education programme in Dealesville, which has aided more than 2,000 school children since 2018. With funding from the trust, the initiative has been able to help more learners, improved literacy programmes and provided essential resources, such as school supplies and uniforms. You can read more about the work Letsatsi does in our article titled Community trusts are greening the future.

We realised that most people have no idea how or why these trusts are formed, or what they do in their communities, despite there being more than 135 of them throughout South Africa.

Designed to channel benefits back into local communities, renewable energy community trusts were established by the government in 2011, with a focus on rural or underdeveloped areas. They are set up to hold a share in renewable energy projects, and ensure that the financial gains from these projects benefit the surrounding communities.

The projects are mandated to allocate a minimum 2.5% shareholding of project equity to community trusts, according to the IPP office. Many of the trusts we looked into actually exceed this minimum — on average, local communities hold 9.1% equity in these projects through community trusts.

Letshego Moeketsi, coordinator at Tlhabologang, an organisation that connects elderly community members and helps them to grow food that is used by surrounding schools. Photo: Motlatsi Mofokeng

Positive change

“Local communities on whose land this green infrastructure is erected deserve upliftment as part of compensation,” said Ncedo Mgqibisa, a researcher at the Land and Accountability Research Centre. “Green community trusts have the potential to become catalysts for positive change and community upliftment.”

The #PowerTracker feature on the Letsatsi trust “tells a story that anyone can relate to — a community problem and how a local trust stepped up to find a solution. In my opinion, the article is both educational and accessible to everyone, you know, the regular people,” Mgqibisa said.

He also praised the work the trust is doing with education-based projects: “And even more than that, they’re actually measuring the results of those projects. That’s important.”

Zukile Tom, the chief executive of the Sibona Ilanga Trust in the Northern Cape, pointed out that trusts should always target gaps so that they don’t appear to be doing the work of the government, “but rather addressing community-specific needs”.

“The #PowerTracker article does reflect a significant impact for the community as it targets a specific area in education that will ensure inclusion of excluded learners. What stood out the most for me was the transparency about the income of the trust and its implementing agencies, and the real benefits [received] by the community both young and old.”

The #PowerTracker tool shares information about community trusts across the country, liberating details about what these investments are and how they work. Image: #PowerTracker

What the data shows

These trusts receive millions each year from the renewable energy projects, which they use to help uplift their immediate communities. For example, we reported that Letsatsi has received more than R94-million since its inception in the past 13 years.

And yet information about them is not easily accessible. Our team has managed to share information about 59 community trusts on our #PowerTracker mapping tool, and we will continue to dig.

We asked experts why so little is known about this community-focused funding mechanism? They agreed that there seems to be a lack of general understanding of what community trusts are responsible for.

According to #PowerTracker data, some of the ways in which these trusts are helping local communities include job creation, financial compensation (for use of the land), contributing money and resources to educational programmes, developing food security through agricultural projects and upgrading existing infrastructure.

Fancisco Domingues, former head of the socio-economic department at the IPP Office, said: “This investigation will go a long way to introduce the trust concepts for those that are not familiar with them.”

Participants at the recent Inspire workshop, where a framework designed to ensure trusts are not only legally compliant but also effective in delivering on their socio-economic mandates was explored. Photo courtesy Inspire

Turning point

We attended a recent workshop convened by the Initiative for Social Performance in Renewable Energy (Inspire) that focused on strengthening community trusts. The gathering, attended by more than 160 participants participants, explored the newly introduced Trust Maturity Framework, a tool designed to ensure trusts are not only legally compliant but also effective in delivering on their socio-economic mandates.

Holle Wlokas, chief executive of Inspire, said the workshop marked a turning point for community trusts. “They’ve not been convened in those numbers before. Our previous provincial workshops attracted a few trusts here and there, but now, having a national platform for these discussions is really powerful. I hope this grows into something even bigger.”

• Find more investigations and track renewable energy projects on our #PowerTracker platform here

#PowerTracker shares a bright side of renewables was originally published in Oxpeckers Investigative Environmental Journalism on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

In 2025 Oxpeckers has joined forces with the Southern Africa Accountability Journalism Project (SA | AJP), a new project to support and strengthen investigative journalism in the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

This pioneering project is a partnership of leading investigative journalism units in the region: the Henry Nxumalo Foundation, Oxpeckers, Viewfinder Centre for Accountability Journalism, IJHub, INK Centre for Investigative Journalism and the Center for Collaborative Investigative Journalism.

SA | AJP will provide journalists with reporting grants and editorial support to produce investigative stories that seek to advance the public interest. The project is co-funded by the United States government and the European Union, and will run for three years.

Journalists are invited to submit pitches for the first round of the project by January 24 2025. Pitches will be adjudicated as they are received and can be submitted at any time — however, journalists who pitch early and successfully will be contracted to start straight away.

This opportunity is open to freelancers and to permanently employed journalists who seek to take a sabbatical from daily newsroom responsibilities to pursue an in-depth project.

Perfect pitch

Each participating journalist will be assigned an editor who will provide guidance and assist the journalist to deliver the best possible exposé arising from their pitch. SA | AJP will offer training and contract external experts, photographers and graphic designers to ensure the delivery of a complete story package.

SA | AJP will assist journalists to secure publishing partners for their stories, if needed, and to maximise the impact of the story through marketing, publicity and partnerships.

FAQs about the opportunity are answered here. Use this pitching questionnaire on Google Forms to submit your pitch.

The first training session of the project, held on January 15 2025, shared tips on how to create the perfect pitch. Attended by around 60 journalists and editors from the region, the training was provided by Daneel Knoetze, the project’s editorial coordinator. Journalists are encouraged to watch a recording of the session here.

• You can reach out to henrynxumalofund@gmail.com if you have additional queries.

Journalism for accountability was originally published in Oxpeckers Investigative Environmental Journalism on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

In 2025 Oxpeckers has joined forces with the Southern Africa Accountability Journalism Project (SA | AJP), a new project to support and strengthen investigative journalism in the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

This pioneering project is a partnership of leading investigative journalism units in the region: the Henry Nxumalo Foundation, Oxpeckers, Viewfinder Centre for Accountability Journalism, IJHub, INK Centre for Investigative Journalism and the Center for Collaborative Investigative Journalism.

SA | AJP will provide journalists with reporting grants and editorial support to produce investigative stories that seek to advance the public interest. The project is co-funded by the United States government and the European Union, and will run for three years.

Journalists are invited to submit pitches for the first round of the project by January 24 2025. Pitches will be adjudicated as they are received and can be submitted at any time — however, journalists who pitch early and successfully will be contracted to start straight away.

This opportunity is open to freelancers and to permanently employed journalists who seek to take a sabbatical from daily newsroom responsibilities to pursue an in-depth project.

Perfect pitch

Each participating journalist will be assigned an editor who will provide guidance and assist the journalist to deliver the best possible exposé arising from their pitch. SA | AJP will offer training and contract external experts, photographers and graphic designers to ensure the delivery of a complete story package.

SA | AJP will assist journalists to secure publishing partners for their stories, if needed, and to maximise the impact of the story through marketing, publicity and partnerships.

FAQs about the opportunity are answered here. Use this pitching questionnaire on Google Forms to submit your pitch.

The first training session of the project, held on January 15 2025, shared tips on how to create the perfect pitch. Attended by around 60 journalists and editors from the region, the training was provided by Daneel Knoetze, the project’s editorial coordinator. Journalists are encouraged to watch a recording of the session here.

• You can reach out to henrynxumalofund@gmail.com if you have additional queries.

New matchmaking platform for green energy funding offers solutions to coal-dependent communities at the frontline of SA’s energy transition, Thabo Molelekwa reports

Eighteen months after the Oxpeckers #PowerTracker project started reporting about how environmentalists and coal-dependent communities were being left in the dark by the Just Energy Transition (JET), a new digital platform has been launched to assist local green projects to secure funding.

Launched last month in Mpumalanga, the heartland of South Africa’s energy transition, the platform signals a new chapter for communities and small businesses at the centre of the transition. It connects international grant funders with local projects, and facilitates access to concessional financing and grants.

Since early 2023 #PowerTracker has reported on significant concerns voiced by coal-affected communities and small businesses operating within South Africa’s coal belt. Local stakeholders expressed frustration over limited access to funding, lack of clear support channels for capacity building, and a perceived disconnect between high-level JET goals and the on-the-ground realities faced by impacted communities.

In an article titled Left in the Dust, for example, Philani Mngomezulu from the Khuthala Environmental Group highlighted how the lack of meaningful consultation with these communities had created resistance and uncertainty around the transition. Community members like Mathapelo Khoza expressed fears of being sidelined by the JET, and artisanal miners said coal industry closures would impact their livelihoods.

Our investigation Are municipalities good for JET money? highlighted the financial challenges and lack of transparency within many municipalities in the region. Often considered “non-bankable” due to poor financial management and a lack of clean audits, these municipalities struggled to meet the standards necessary for fund allocation, posing a major barrier to the effective use of JET funds and hindering Mpumalanga’s efforts to move towards a sustainable energy future.

How it works

The JET Funding Platform’s community-oriented approach aims to address many of these concerns. By prioritising initiatives such as community-owned renewable energy models and reskilling programmes, the platform aims to deliver practical and accessible solutions directly to those who need them most.

The most recent grants register shared on the platform (Quarter 3 of 2024) indicates there is more than R700-million available for potential JET projects. Quarterly updates to the grants register reflect commercial investments, public-sector expenditure and blended finance.

The platform is not a fund itself; rather, it describes itself as “a service to connect grant funders with JET-aligned projects in need of financial and technical support. Its main purpose is to help projects become ‘grant-ready’, enabling them to attract local and international funding sources and prepare for future investment opportunities.”

It is positioned as a “matchmaking” service, facilitating partnerships between international funders and local organisations, community groups and government entities with JET-aligned goals. “Importantly, this platform seeks to ensure that these resources reach the grassroots level, enabling workforce transitions, economic diversification, and social support for the communities that need it most,” it states.

“The transparency of this public registry ensures funders have a comprehensive view of projects available for funding, allowing them to select projects that best align with their mission and goals.”

The current application window closes on December 13 2024. Project assessments are expected to be completed within 90 days, allowing funders to begin their reviews in early 2025.

Mpumalanga launch

At the launch workshop in Mpumalanga, the JET project management unit (PMU) offered local stakeholders a comprehensive look at the platform’s mechanics and its application processes. The session was attended by a diverse group, including representatives from government bodies, civil society organisations, educational institutions and private-sector entities.

According to the PMU, parties eligible to apply via the platform include companies, NGOs, public entities, educational institutions and other registered entities aligned with the JET mission. This includes a focus on climate mitigation, community empowerment and transformative impact.

The platform uses a pre-qualifying system to assess applicants, ensuring they meet essential governance and compliance standards before undergoing an in-depth evaluation. Funders have the final say on whether to finance a project and conduct their due diligence before committing any resources.

Once a project is funded, the PMU continues its role in monitoring and evaluating its progress. Through regular updates on the JET grant register, stakeholders can track each project’s development and impact on a continual basis.

“This real-time tracking capability provides an additional layer of accountability, ensuring that projects adhere to the intended objectives and deliver measurable benefits to their communities,” the platform states.

• Find the JET Funding Platform here

• Find more investigations and track renewable energy projects on our #PowerTracker platform here

We asked — the PMU has answered was originally published in Oxpeckers Investigative Environmental Journalism on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Over the past 18 months the #PowerTracker team has spent time on the ground in Mpumalanga, investigating and interrogating the unfolding renewables revolution in a province long synonymous with coal mining and power generation.

The shift towards renewables in South Africa’s energy capital continues to gain momentum, but in order to understand the journey better #PowerTracker journalistic investigations and data need to incorporate other provinces.

This was one of the key messages that emerged during a webinar hosted by the Oxpeckers’ #PowerTracker team on September 3 2024. “Understanding the current state of the Just Energy Transition [JET] across South Africa is crucial, especially in terms of the perceptions and experiences of coal-dependent communities,” one of the attendees said.

The webinar brought together journalists, researchers and government authorities to share insights and answer the question: What’s happening in South Africa’s energy capital?

Steady increase

According to the pioneering #PowerTracker data-driven mapping tool, there has been a steady increase in the number of renewable projects being implemented in Mpumalanga, with a notable spike in 2023 and several coming online in 2024. Even more projects are expected next year.

Data from the projects mapped so far by #PowerTracker shows that more than 26,000MW of energy would be added to the national grid if all of these projects were to come online. Currently, approximately 42,000MW of the nation’s electricity is generated by coal-fired power stations. While coal will continue to provide the majority of the nation’s power, the share from renewables is expected to grow steadily.

About R140-billion is needed to decommission and repurpose all 12 coal-fired power stations that are owned by Eskom in the province. However, Eskom announced this year that further plans to decommission its Camden, Grootvlei and Hendrina power stations, which were due to be decommissioned in 2025, have been paused until 2030.

Significant change

Having published close to 40 investigations on renewable energy across Sub-Saharan Africa over the past two years, we have reported evidence of significant change on the ground. A major focus this year has been investigating new green technologies, as well as any energy pathways that are being introduced as part of the JET.

Shortly after our April 2024 investigation into a carbon capture pilot project situated close to several coal mines and power stations, developers reached a milestone when the 1,800m drill was completed — a crucial component for the project’s development. The article sparked debate around whether carbon capture and storage is truly a green solution.

In July, we reported on an uptake in wind farms across Mpumalanga, including a R25-billion wind farm project by Seriti Green. Following our investigation, the first phase of the project was launched, the 155MW Ummbila Emoyeni facility.

This investigation and its follow-ups once again demonstrated the need for #PowerTracker, a “one-stop-shop” for information on renewables, to expand beyond the province. For us to be able to report on the full picture, we need to interrogate and update the available data in this fast-moving space.

The most recent impact for #PowerTracker was the September announcement of the European Union’s pledge to give South Africa two grants worth approximately $35-million to accelerate its green hydrogen (GH2) plans.

This came three months after our investigation into ambitious GH2 development plans — in particular, a project by Hydrogène De France, which predicts that their mega GH2 plant could mitigate up to half of Eskom’s load-shedding.

Another innovation was to investigate the integration of battery and energy storage solutions needed for renewable energy technologies. We found that although Mpumalanga has a wealth of critical minerals needed for green energy storage, there is a heavy focus on exporting these minerals, meaning that the province is currently seeing little to no benefits.

Human cost

We also investigated the human cost of the energy transition. A challenge identified by #PowerTracker journalists is the general lack of consultations with communities about the JET Implementation Plan.

“People haven’t seen consultations and that puts them in a situation to say, do we accept this energy transition or not?” said Thabo Molelekwa, an Oxpeckers associate journalist who has spent time with Mpumalanga communities throughout the past year and a half.

His investigations unravelled the complex social dynamics at play as communities grapple with the shift away from coal-dependent economies. “All of those people in the dark complain about not knowing what is going to happen with the transition because nobody has come to them and talked to them,” Molelekwa said at the webinar.

JET financing

The webinar took place just over two months before the 29th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29), which many are calling the “climate finance COP”.

Our webinar panellists included climate researcher Katrina Lehmann-Grube, of the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies at Wits University, and Neil Cole, the financing manager for the Presidency’s Project Management Unit. Their takes on climate finance contributions and needs, transparency, equality and access to both funds and information are available on our YouTube recording of the webinar here.

One of the #PowerTracker project’s core mandates is to track the flow of money in the JET. From early 2023, we have offered regular updates of the original $8.5-billion that was pledged at COP26 and found that by September last year, South Africa had received less than 1% of the total amount needed for the energy transition.

Our exposé about how JET funding is being undermined by indebted municipalities in Mpumalanga saw multiple stakeholders convening in an attempt to overcome the hurdles in September 2024 (Financing municipal progress for Mpumalanga’s energy transition).

Looking to the future

The webinar highlighted the critical role of investigative journalism in navigating the complexities of the energy transition. By combining data analysis, mapping technologies and on-the-ground reporting, #PowerTracker is shedding light on both the progress and the pitfalls of South Africa’s JET journey.

“The tracker could be an invaluable resource for staying updated on developments and understanding the realities faced by communities on the ground,” one of the attendees, a community activist, said. “Engaging with it more could provide crucial insights that can be shared with the communities we support.”

Looking ahead, the team plans to expand its coverage, delving deeper into the socio-economic impacts of the transition and exploring innovative renewable energy initiatives across the country. Watch this space for nation-wide information on the renewables revolution that will continue to shape our understanding of what a just transition looks like in practice.

You can watch the full webinar in the #PowerTracker Multimedia Kit here

The Oxpeckers #PowerTracker Mpumalanga project is supported by the African Climate Foundation’s New Economy Hub

#PowerTracker to monitor renewables across SA was originally published in Oxpeckers Investigative Environmental Journalism on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

More than a year ago, Oxpeckers Investigative Environmental Journalism’s #PowerTracker project rated South Africa’s transparency on renewable power agreements. After spending several months trying to track down data to build our geo-journalism mapping tool, we discovered it would be no easy feat.

Undeterred, we turned to South Africa’s Promotion of Access to Information Act of Information (PAIA) Act 2 of 2000 and submitted information requests to the relevant stakeholders. The Act allows for the right of access to any information held by the state as well as any information that is held by another person that is required for the exercise or protection of any rights; and to provide for matters connected to it.

Eskom, the national power utility, was one of the first entities that #PowerTracker reached out to in our quest to build up the data on our #PowerTracker map, which is a “one-stop-shop” for information on renewable energy projects in Mpumalanga, South Africa’s energy capital. The map includes updates on the Eskom power plant decommissioning process and information related to Just Energy Transition (JET) funding and activities.

From Eskom we requested a status update on the coal power station decommissioning plans taking place alongside the JET, as well an update on its first decommissioning project in 19 years at Komati power station, pioneer of the new era where the country is embarking on a transition from polluting fossil fuels towards renewable energy.

We also requested data on renewable energy capacity installed by the end of 2023, including utility-scale generation (under the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme) and private solar systems. We also wanted details of land lease power purchase agreements and the status of the agreements with different renewable energy companies.

Initiatives for transparency

In response, the power utility indicated that their JET office is playing an active role with different stakeholders to ensure that information and knowledge on the JET is easily available to the public.

“The Eskom JET office engages widely with a multitude of stakeholders including, but not limited to and in no specific order, community forums, prominent local and national stakeholders like municipalities and ward councillors, provincial government departments, national government departments including the Presidential Climate Commission, funders, organised labour and other stakeholder forums,” said the Eskom media desk.

“We have also established a community information centre at Komati power station that allows for easy access to information on the Komati JET initiative and to share employment and training opportunities with members of the Komati community and the general public,” said the media desk.

New PAIA system

Although the normal waiting period for a response after submitting a PAIA request is usually 30 days, we experienced some delays in hearing back from the power utility due to a new PAIA response system it is piloting.

According to Eskom’s media desk, the new system went live on March 1 2024 and entails a call logging system as part of an automated customer relationship management system — as opposed to the electronic centralised mailing system it had previously been using.

However, the new system encountered some teething problems, including a delay in responding to PAIA requests as a result of some mail not being filtered through the system to identify authentic information requests.

“As a result, Eskom has reverted to the electronic centralised mailing system where e-mails are sent by requesters to PAIA@eskom.co.za, which are then assessed and allocated to the relevant division’s deputy information officer for their attention and response,” said the media desk in a response to questions sent on behalf of #PowerTracker.

National regulator

We also reached out to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA), which publishes quarterly updates on new registered renewable energy projects across the country. The #PowerTracker map currently has 67 renewable energy projects that were sourced from the NERSA database of registered energy generation projects.

We requested more details that were missing from this database in order to build up the quality of the existing projects mapped, and this request was granted within the 30-day deadline. The response to our request included more information such as the exact location of projects, exact dates of registration with NERSA, the distribution network used by the generator as well as the purpose of the energy generation facility which was mostly for commercial or own use.

Ngodwana Energy

At the start of the #PowerTracker data collection process in 2023, we reported that Mpumalanga is being left behind in the race for renewable energy generation as the province still only had one renewable energy project contracted to supply the Eskom grid. The 25MW Ngodwana biomass power plant, located about 50km outside the provincial capital Mbombela, uses biowaste from the adjacent Sappi wood and paper mill to produce steam and cost an estimated US$89-million to set up. It has been supplying Eskom with 25MW of energy since March 2022, in terms of a bilateral power purchase agreement.

As the only existing renewable energy project in Mpumalanga procured through the Independent Power Producers (IPP) office, we were interested to see what the agreement between Ngodwana and Eskom entailed, how much power the plant had generated since it came online as well as the implementation agreements of socio-economic opportunities that support the communities surrounding the plant.

Although our request to Ngodwana Energy was acknowledged, no official response was received following many follow-ups which revealed that the company was dealing with some structural issues internally and could not dedicate human resources at the time to handle the PAIA request submitted by #PowerTracker in March 2024.

Power purchase agreements

Power purchase agreements (PPAs) have remained an important part of the documentation we have pursued as part of the #PowerTracker project because, though the signing of these agreements is often publicised along with basic details, they do not include crucial information on contract arrangements and important details such as shareholder information, funding mechanisms, and social, environmental and governance plans.

In their partially granted response to our PAIA request, Eskom stated it had not signed any PPA contracts with their land lease agreements as the renewable energy companies leasing available land parcels from Eskom were responsible for their own offtake agreements for the energy produced from their operations. Eskom further declined to provide the land lease agreements in terms of PAIA Section 42(3)(b), but shared a proforma copy of what the agreements are based on.

According to the deputy information officer of generation, Brad Ross-Jones, reasons for declining to share the actual agreements were that, “should information such as prices and conditions be publicly known, Eskom would be at a disadvantage in contractual or other negotiations and would be prejudiced in commercial competition as future bidders would know where to pitch their bids in terms of prices and conditions”.

Industrial Development Corporation

Although some information requested by #PowerTracker was received through PAIA, we also reached out to other entities via email to establish whether it was worth sending information requests before spending time putting all of these together.

We reached out to the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (IDC) which as part of its mandate is responsible for facilitating the energy transition and ensuring sustainable energy security in South Africa and the rest of the continent through its financing opportunities.

Our request for a list of renewable energy projects funded by the IDC was declined on the basis that the information they have on the individual clients they fund contains confidential client information.

From some of the responses received from the different entities, it is clear that there is still a long road ahead to full transparency around the JET as confidentiality clauses in most instances stand in the way of some crucial information being made public.

#PowerTracker continues to engage different stakeholders and scrape through different sources to enrich our dossier of journalistic investigations and uphold the integrity of the data that can be found on the Mpumalanga #PowerTracker map in the public interest.

Andiswa Matikinca is a data manager and journalist at the Oxpeckers #PowerTracker project in Mpumalanga, which is supported by the African Climate Foundation’s New Economy Hub. Consultations with alt.advisory assisted #PowerTracker’s 2024 PAIA work.

• Find the #PowerTracker tool here

Confidentiality stands in the way of JET information was originally published in Oxpeckers Investigative Environmental Journalism on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Engagements with different stakeholders have underscored the need for a tool such as #PowerTracker to enhance the capacity building of communities, journalists, business owners and others affected by or interested in the Just Energy Transition (JET).

This has become increasingly evident from various calls by affected communities and other stakeholders for us to expand the tool to provinces in South Africa where significant progress has been made with the introduction of renewable energy projects.

The #PowerTracker data and map currently focus on Mpumalanga province, which has had a slow uptake in procuring renewable energy through the government’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP). Other provinces have made great strides, but interested and affected parties in these provinces are still in the dark about how they can become a part of the progress made and benefit from the transition.

Civil society organisations working with communities and municipalities such as those in the Northern Cape, which now has 53 renewable energy projects procured through the REIPPPP, have expressed interest in expanding the #PowerTracker tool to facilitate a better understanding of activities taking place in the communities’ backyards.

This can be achieved through training and capacity building workshops for municipalities and communities so they can use the tool to know who the industry players are, what they are doing and what impacts this has on them as citizens. #PowerTracker journalistic investigations can also be used as a means of interpreting and simplifying communications about the renewable energy projects.

Storytelling through data

Storytelling through data journalism is one of the cornerstones of Oxpeckers’ work, and as a pioneer in investigative environmental journalism in Africa, the unit focuses on empowering journalists on the continent and beyond. With the global urgency to address the climate crisis, the #PowerTracker project moves beyond raising awareness about the threats climate change poses to supporting journalists interested in investigating green energy and its complexities.

For example, in December 2023 Oxpeckers introduced #PowerTracker to 29 journalists from the Philippines. The Centre for Investigative Journalism’s Open Climate Reporting Initiative (OCRI), which has supported and collaborated with the #PowerTracker project over the past two years, invited Oxpeckers to provide in-depth training for Philippines-based environmental journalists on how to use data to investigate renewable energy issues.

While the production of fossil fuels has continued to grow across Asia, the Philippines has seen particularly strong growth in wind, solar and geothermal energy production. The country currently has what is described as an “energy mix”, comprising 78% fossil fuels and 22% renewables. With ambitious plans to increase its renewables-based capacity by 2030, the Philippines is making big strides by introducing subsidies for renewable energy production, stronger legislation and the National Renewable Energy Programme.

There are obvious links and similarities between the energy transition in South Africa and the Philippines. Both have a strong focus on the concept of a “just transition”, with the aim of reducing inequality and shifting the costs of climate action onto wealthy polluters while prioritising economic, racial and gender justice.

Much like our work in Mpumalanga, regions across the Philippines are tracking and mapping renewable energy projects to determine their impact and effectiveness. During our training, we were able to take what we’ve learned through our work with #PowerTracker and apply it to the situation in the Philippines.

Training and professional support

Back in Southern Africa, the Oxpeckers Training and Professional Support Programme recently trained a group of 28 Zimbabwe-based mid-career journalists and academics on environmental and data journalism. The three-day training programme, titled the Nexus of Environmental and Data Journalism, was supported by the FOJO Media Institute in partnership with the National University of Science and Technology’s (NUST) Journalism and Media Studies department.

The training equipped participants with skills, understanding and knowledge in environmental crime, data journalism and energy storytelling. Four journalists are in the process of taking their training forward to produce in-depth data-driven investigations in the coming months, under the mentorship of the Oxpeckers team.

Nqobile Tshili, a seasoned reporter from The Chronicle, mentioned how the training highlighted the importance of humanising environmental stories: “Ordinarily environmental reporting is a specialised field and as journalists we shy away from it, but the training enlightened me to realise that environmental issues are human survival issues and speak to our core survival.

“Secondly, I appreciated how data journalism can enhance reporting. Data journalism complements traditional text and contributes to improved storytelling,” he said.

Yolanda Moyo, a journalist from the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, said the training and introduction to Oxpeckers’ journalism tools inspired her to look more into the energy transition for her newsroom. “I was inspired to look at Zimbabwe’s progress towards embracing renewable energy as the world transitions,” said Moyo in her post-training feedback.

The Oxpeckers team also visited the NUST campus in Bulawayo to provide guest lectures to more than 30 final-year journalism and media studies students, and seasoned Zimbabwe-based Oxpeckers journalist Oscar Nkala shared some of his experiences from the field to inspire the young students from his hometown.

Capacity building back home

In South Africa, #PowerTracker journalists are hard at work completing more in-depth and focused investigations on whether JET funds are reaching their intended beneficiaries, further interrogating new and existing frameworks intended for local skilling projects as part of the JET, in addition to tracking renewable energy projects that will contribute towards solving the country’s energy crisis and decreasing its reliance on the burning of fossil fuels.

For instance, Oxpeckers journalist Thabo Molelekwa reported in November 2023 how JET financing is being undermined by indebted municipalities in Mpumalanga that are not bankable. He presented the findings of this investigation at a virtual peer-to-peer learning session hosted by Code for Africa’s WanaData group in January 2024.

As the #PowerTracker project continues to grow, the Oxpeckers team aims to continue taking the tool to all stakeholders involved to empower them with information on the fast-moving JET space and its developments.

Find more updates on Oxpeckers programmes in our News section here

Powering journalistic expertise to cover renewable energy was originally published in Oxpeckers Investigative Environmental Journalism on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

After liberating data and publishing a series of hard-hitting, compelling investigations that focus on tracking financial flows of renewable energy projects in Mpumalanga, #PowerTracker is getting ready to kick off for another year.

With a whole new set of investigations planned, we will continue to track new and existing renewable energy projects in the province, as well as keeping users up-to-date with plans to decommission its coal-fired power stations.

But, before moving forward, the team behind it all takes a look back at what this powerful platform has achieved thus far, and at some of the lessons learned along the way.

#PowerTracker investigations cover a range of different impacts — such as consequences to labour rights, the coal lobby’s pushback, the risk of stranded assets, training and community support, and the country’s power crisis — that the radical green shift will have on Africa’s third largest economy.

They also have an accountability focus on how local authorities are implementing the Just Energy Transition plan. The project demonstrated that without journalistic interrogation, the renewables revolution in South Africa could become another vehicle for bureaucracy, broken promises, and potential corruption.

Starting from scratch

It was because of this level of scrutiny that Oxpeckers had to create a dataset entirely from scratch.

We looked to sources such as the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, the SA Renewable Energy EIA Application database, Eskom, Mpumalanga Green Cluster Agency, Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies, the National Energy Regulator, the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, and individual power companies.

In some cases, the information we needed was available, but had to be cleaned up and collated into a single place. Most of the time, we had to dig deep to get what we needed.

Limited data was available from official sources (see: Rating SA’s transparency on clean energy), so we relied heavily on field interviews with local stakeholders, community members and project developers, as a starting point. We gathered information such as project capaties, locations, technology used, development status, and expected impacts. The next step was to take this to the entities behind Mpumalanga’s new energy projects, where we verified the data and made sure that it was up-to-date.

In the background, we were also gathering historical energy production and environmental impact data, in order to provide a holistic view of renewable energy in the province.

By the time we published our digital mapping tool in October 2023, we had collected, cleaned and analysed data on more than 100 individual projects and 12 coal-fired power stations. With the upcoming Bid Window Seven of the government’s renewables programme scheduled to be released in December 2023, we will continue to monitor and update the dataset, reflecting the dynamic nature of renewables and their contribution to sustainable energy generation in Mpumalanga.

Community engagement is key

We also found that what helped to set our reporting apart was the time spent in affected communities, including those in Ermelo, Hendrina, Middelburg and Emalahleni. This is where and how we identified a major gap in green skills (see: Mind the (green skills) gap), and also highlighted how little engagement people felt was taking place between national and local government, and residents themselves.

Given that this is a transition centred on a “just” outcome, obtaining the perspectives and inputs of the people in the trenches has always been vital to ensuring equitability. As the Just Energy Transition unfolds, it is crucial to address the social and economic challenges faced by these affected communities, who are experiencing job displacement and other disruptions.

For some of these coal-dependent communities, the whole process has been surrounded by fear and worry about how it will unfold, and whether a shift to new energy sources will sustain them or if they will simply be left behind (see: Left in the dust for a greener future).

In Ermelo, for example, almost 80% of its income-generating residents are employed at Eskom and Transnet. By actively involving them in decision-making and helping their voices to be heard, it is possible to develop policies that prioritise their well-being, ensuring a transition that is not only green but also socially responsible.

Additionally, the experiences and knowledge of these communities provided our reporting with valuable insights and possible solutions to overcome the specific challenges they face.

Tracking financial flows

One of our main goals with #PowerTracker has been to track financial flows in renewable power generation and the planned decommissioning of the various coal plants across the province. From the get-go we were challenged, not only because of how complex the energy sector is, but also because of how little information was out there.

South Africa’s renewable energy involves a diverse set of funding sources, including government subsidies, private investments, international aid and loans from financial institutions (see: Pledges roll in for SA’s energy transition for details). Often, it is difficult to establish a clear financial trail.

We have worked tirelessly to extract what little information was available at this early stage in the JET, and created a robust system for tracking finances. By implementing this system through interviews, data analysis and desktop research, we have been able to discern that while billions have been invested so far, Mpumalanga specifically has a long way to go when it comes to securing funding (see: #PowerTracker: Renewables are powering up in Mpumalanga).

The Just Energy Transition landscape in South Africa is a dynamic and ever-evolving one. The country is in the midst of a significant shift from a fossil fuel-dependent energy system to one that is more sustainable, renewable, and environmentally responsible.

Keeping up with these changes and developments is a challenging yet essential task, and is the main reason we created #PowerTracker in the first place. One of its key features is that users can subscribe to receive updates, which are monitored on a regular basis.

You can find an easy tutorial on How to use #PowerTracker here

Spend some time digging into #PowerTracker data here

Roxanne Joseph is project manager at the Oxpeckers #PowerTracker project, which is supported by the African Climate Foundation’s New Economy Campaigns Hub and the Centre for Investigative Journalism’s (CIJ) Open Climate Reporting Initiative (OCRI)

#PowerTracker digs deeper into Mpumalanga renewables was originally published in Oxpeckers Investigative Environmental Journalism on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Three original and exclusive investigations tracking financial issues in the shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy in Mozambique found mixed progress in the northern provinces of the country.

The investigations, carried out by local journalists, are published in English on the Oxpeckers #PowerTracker page and in Portuguese by a variety of local media outfits. In partnership with the Open Climate Reporting Initiative, the Centro de Jornalismo Investigativo Mozambique and Moz24Horas, the project has supported journalists Nelsa Nomade Pedro, Amade Ababucar and Buanamade Assane to investigate green energy initiatives.

Our main objectives with #PowerTracker in Mozambique include monitoring financial flows in the generation of renewable energy, the use of solar panels and other forms of alternative energy, following the issue of fossil fuels versus green energy, and reporting on climate issues using data journalism resources.

Financing sources

Investment in renewable energy in the three provinces investigated — Cabo Delgado, Nampula and Niassa — involves a diverse set of financing sources, including government subsidies, private investments, international aid and loans from financial institutions such as the Banco Comercial Internacional (BCI) in partnership with the National Energy Fund (FUNAE), a government institution.

We discovered that FUNAE does not have money to spend on projects itself, but offers a line of financing with the BCI bank for companies and interested entrepreneurs. Its Nampula representative said these transactions are managed by the central government in Maputo, and at provincial level FUNAE only has the duty to welcome companies and respond to their concerns.

Promised investments in the northern region include millions of dollars from the World Bank, European Union, African Bank and other partners. Most of the renewable energy projects that FUNAE implements are projects financed by cooperation partners, many of which are from the European community.

These partners are directly supporting the projects in terms of the electrification strategy shared between the Mozambican Electricity Company (EDM) and FUNAE. Our investigations show that since 2018 the funds allocated to the various administrative posts in the north are valued at a total of 60-million meticais (around US$940,000), although the local FUNAE representative was unable to say how much has actually been received from the promised investments and whom they have benefited.

Training sessions

These data-driven investigations were the outcome of two in-depth virtual training sessions for Mozambican journalists, expanding the Oxpeckers Community of Practice to the Lusophone country. The data sets collated during the project are shared on our Get the Data section, and the lessons learnt and presentations from experts are shared on our Learning Kit.

The programme is facilitated by Estacio Valoi, a Mozambique-based Oxpeckers associate and winner of the 2023 Swedish Pen2Pen-Örebro Freedom of Expression Award.

A group of Angolan journalists joined one of our training sessions, further expanding the #PowerTracker Southern African Community of Practice and helping them to better understand and report on climate change and renewable energy.

Our training on data journalism, where numbers are represented by the human face, helps journalists to uncover what the millions of dollars invested in the renewables revolution actually mean in terms of socioeconomic development, where these projects were and/or are implemented, and how to understand and follow financial flows.

The Mozambican project is part of the #PowerTracker professional support and training project, launched in 2022 under the rubric “ Green for good — or greed? “ It is a climate crisis programme developed by Oxpeckers Investigative Environmental Journalism that aims to investigate who is financing renewable energy initiatives in Southern Africa, and how the money is being spent.

The first iteration of the programme was a nine-month project, in collaboration with the Centre for Investigative Journalism’s Open Climate Reporting Initiative (OCRI). Journalists based in Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, South Africa and Zimbabwe collected and analysed information on close to 200 renewable energy projects in the region, culminating in a series of data-driven investigations into the financing and feasibility of green projects.

Their investigations are featured by Oxpeckers here, and have been published by various other media outlets across the region. (See Journalists liberate new #PowerTracker data to follow energy investments.)

Environmental problems

Our investigations in Mozambique found that in some districts in northern parts of the country, even though solar energy has improved the lives of some people, some solar panels have been counterproductive and caused environmental problems for local residents. In some regions the cost of energy has not decreased, but shows signs of increasing.

Due to the limited electricity available on the public grid in the north, private companies are intervening to provide services, often at a cost to poor populations living in rural areas.

Our data shows that although FUNAE has been Mozambique’s implementing agency for off-grid matters and rural electrification since 1997, it has only managed to electrify 580 schools and 561 health centres in 260 communities across the country.

Critical voices say that the overseas investments do not benefit Mozambicans because they increase the public debt, in the form of loans and not donations or grants.

There is much journalistic digging still to be done. #PowerTracker and its partners in Mozambique plan to continue doing this in 2024. You can follow #PowerTracker news here, and investigations here. Data sets shared during our investigations are available here, as well as on our pioneering #PowerTracker tool. You can keep an eye on our training programmes here, and on the Oxpeckers YouTube channel here.

What #PowerTracker journalists found in Mozambique was originally published in Oxpeckers Investigative Environmental Journalism on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.