Expropriation on the cards for transmission lines, says Ramokgopa

Expropriation for public purposes is on the cards as the government embarks on its multiyear, R440bn project to roll out 14,000km of transmission lines and more than 170 substations, electricity & energy minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said on Thursday. 

He told members of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) one of the biggest challenges to the project was to obtain the right of way from landowners as the lines would criss-cross public and private land throughout the country, going through farmland in far-flung areas. 

Ramokgopa cited the example of unsuccessful negotiations with a farmer over the past three years. There was also the reluctance by those responsible for activating the expropriation of land.

Expropriation was a powerful instrument to be used for the development of the country and if not used for the transmission project, the country would suffer from a shortage of electricity.

‘We will expropriate’

The project could not be held back by landowners demanding ridiculous sums of money, Ramokgopa said. 

“We will expropriate,” he stressed, after undertaking the necessary consultations required by law. He and public works & infrastructure minister Dean Macpherson had set up a committee for expropriation, which Ramokgopa said could not be a party issue. 

Other big risks were the decimation of the local industries such as steel, which will be needed for the project and the lack of a sufficient pipeline of engineers to support the build programme. Many of SA’s engineers had left the country. 

“It is not a money problem; there is an insatiable appetite,” the minister said. 

Additional transmission lines are essential for the grid if SA is to expand its generation capacity through the renewable energy produced by independent power producers. Already renewable energy production is being held back due to a lack of access to the grid. 

The transmission line project will leverage private sector investment, as well as concessional and Eskom finance.

The minister said his department, Eskom and the National Transmission Company of SA were implementing a comprehensive transmission development plan 2025-34. Initially there would be a pilot programme to procure about 1,000km across seven corridors in the Northern Cape, the North West and Gauteng.

Ramokgopa said the plan would be implemented in three structured phases in 2025-27. About 4,500km of new transmission lines would be under construction along corridors from the Northern, Western and Eastern Cape to major demand centres in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, where most of the new renewable generation capacity will connect. 

From 2028-30 a further 5,000km of new lines would be constructed to integrate the build projects outlined in the Integrated Resource Plan adopted by cabinet on Wednesday, including gas to power and large scale renewable energy projects.

This phase would also strengthen regional interconnections and improve energy supply reliability to mining and industrial regions, particularly Mpumalanga, Limpopo and the Northern Cape. 

The period 2031-34 would see 4,000km of new lines, which would reinforce the national backbone corridors and strengthen connections within Southern Africa. 

Ramokgopa conceded the criteria for tenders for the transmission infrastructure project excluded SA companies by requiring proof of previous work in the transmission field. This was because no SA firm had been involved in this type of project.

However, he said winning bidders would be obliged to have not less than 49% SA participation. These criteria would change as local expertise was built up over the period of the plan. 

Ramokgopa anticipated the new electricity pricing policy would be finalised in the first quarter of 2026. This would address the “untenable” price of electricity, which had become increasingly unaffordable and end the era of double digit price increases. He agreed that consumers were paying for the inefficiencies and “leakage” at Eskom. 

ensorl@businesslive.co.za