Futures in Energy: Where South Africa’s Transition Binds

Goitsione Emily Olifant and Yongezile Mhlana

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Abstract

This editorial introduces the CARES 2025 Energy Special Issue of the Wits Business Review, four articles developed from the 2025 Conference for Academic Researchers in the Energy Sector (CARES), held under the theme ’Futures in Energy’. The articles examine how South Africa procures renewable electricity, where new generation will have to be built and, on whose land, how environmental law weighs the water and food consequences of energy projects, and what the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism will cost the country’s carbon-intensive exporters. Read together, they make one argument. The transition is held back less by technology, resources or investor interest than by the points at which projects must connect to something they do not control: the grid, the land, the mandates of other public authorities and the rules of export markets. Throughout the issue, implementation challenges emerge as more significant than technological constraints, highlighting the importance of infrastructure readiness, institutional coordination, and regulatory coherence. We identify three findings that cut across the distributions: the role of binding constraints in shaping transition outcomes, the importance of legitimacy and governance in securing support for transition policies, and the growing cross-border reach of carbon process and climate-related measures. We also distinguish between what the evidence can and cannot yet support and propose an agenda of future research on grid access and procurement design, integrated resource governance, trade exposure and industrial decarbonisation, and the social and regional foundations of the opportunities and constraints shaping South Africa’s energy future.

Keywords
Just Energy Transition; South Africa; public-private partnerships; water-energy-food nexus; Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism; renewable energy integration; customary land governance; grid access; energy governance