The next edition of the Investing in African Mining Indaba, scheduled to take place from 3 to 6 February 2020 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, will look at key issues in the African mining industry in 2020 and beyond.

By Manie de Waal, CEO, Energy Partners Solar

Eskom’s recent announcement of a proposed new pricing structure is widely perceived as a reactive measure by the utility to compensate for its own inefficiencies and to support the generation of unsustainable, expensive coal-driven power, while the cost of renewable power keeps coming down.

Despite automation, the human factor can still put industrial processes at risk: employee errors or unintentional actions were behind 52% of incidents affecting operational technology and industrial control system (OT/ICS) networks last year. According to the new Kaspersky report The State of Industrial Cybersecurity 2019, this issue is part of a wider, more complicated context.

Speaking at the United Nations Climate Action Summit in September, Akinwumi Adesina, African Development Bank President, revealed ambitious plans to scrap coal power stations across the continent and switch to renewable energy.

Following their showcasing of scientific and engineering innovations aimed at solving local and/or global concerns, young scientists celebrated the winners at the Eskom Expo International Science Fair (ISF).