Presentations

Lesego Moshikaro-Amani (TIPS) - Paving the path for a local battery industry in South Africa

Kgashane Mohale (IDC) - Battery value chain - IDC segmental approach (Slide)

Media

Media article: Battery industry set to boom - Business Times (Sunday Times) 22 October 2023

Media article: SMMEs can enter the battery energy value chain - Vutivi Business News 19 October 2023

Media article: Opportunities, challenges for South Africa in LIB, VRFB industries - Engineering News 18 October 2023

Research

Report: Opportunities to develop the lithium-ion battery (LIB) battery value chain in South Africa (2021) - Gaylor Montmasson Clair, Lesego Moshikaro and Lerato Monaisa (TIPS)

Policy Brief : Opportunities to develop the lithium-ion battery value chain in South Africa (2021) - Gaylor Montmasson Clair, Lesego Moshikaro and Lerato Monaisa (TIPS)

Report: Localising vanadium battery production for South Africa's energy security (2023) - Lesego Moshikaro and Lebogang Pheto (TIPS)

Policy Brief: A review of vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) market demand and costs - Lesego Moshikaro (TIPS)

Background

The demand for battery energy storage systems (BESS) is on the rise in various sectors, including stationary applications and transportation. BESS plays a critical role in advancing the transition towards decarbonisation. In addition, battery storage systems are pivotal in seamlessly integrating renewable energy sources into the energy landscape. The increasing demand for batteries and their constituent minerals stems from the global push to decarbonise the automotive industry and ensure a reliable energy supply through renewables coupled with energy storage.

South Africa's large production and reserves of battery materials make it well-positioned to actively participate in the battery value chain. Developing a local battery value chain presents numerous economic opportunities for South Africa. There is a notable trend where batteries are predominantly consumed in the regions where they are manufactured. This is evident in the automotive industry and in countries' strategic investments in battery value chains to ensure their energy supply security. South Africa has the minerals and a market for batteries, but it's essential to stress the need for support in advancing both market development and the growth of industrial capacity for battery production.

Given this, the question arises: how can the country effectively engage in this value chain and contribute value to upstream activities within the value chain? TIPS research delves into this issue, focusing on the beneficiation processes these minerals can undergo to support the growth of battery industries, emphasising local capabilities throughout the value chain and offering recommendations on areas in which the country can competitively engage. The report also explores ways in which industrial policy can play a more substantial role in supporting emerging and high-tech industries, and how South Africa can establish a thriving local battery industry, underscoring the significance of sustaining demand.

About the Speakers

Moderator

Gaylor Montmasson-Clair is a Senior Economist at Trade & Industrial Policy Strategies (TIPS). He leads TIPS's work on sustainability and just transition. He is the Facilitator for the South African Renewable Energy Masterplan (SAREM), the industrialisation plan for South Africa’s renewable energy value chain.

Presenters

Lesego Moshikaro-Amani is Senior Economist at TIPS. Her expertise lies in industrial policy, battery energy storage value chains and the emerging sector of new energy vehicles (NEVs) in South Africa, including a strong emphasis on skill development within the NEV industry. Other areas of focus include skills development for industry and promoting employment.

Mikhail Nikomarov is an entrepreneur and African energy leader committed to resolving the continent’s electricity shortage. He co-founded Bushveld Energy to provide large-scale energy storage solutions across the African continent. The company develops energy storage projects and is also localising manufacturing of vanadium redox flow batteries in South Africa. Mikhail also serves as the Chairman of the South African Energy Storage Association (SAESA) and chairs the Energy Storage Committee for Vanitec, the global organisation of vanadium producers.

Kgashane Mohale is Senior Industry Specialist: Industrial Development leading in Innovation and Strategy at the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa Ltd (IDC). He has experience in leadership, strategy design and execution, manufacturing and production management, business improvement, consulting, entrepreneurship, business development, commercial and engineering from various organisations. He currently develops strategies and investment products for IDC to develop and invest in new or priority sectors/value chains like the battery value chain – from mining through chemical and components, cell manufacturing and application and renewable energy localisation, focusing on wind and solar.

Ian de Vries is both CEO and CTO at Balancell, a technology startup. He leads on technology, hardware and software development, battery electromechanical integration, cell manufacturer selection, battery design, overall IoT software system architecture, including data flow, data structures, and battery data analysis. He has expertise in cell chemistry, battery management algorithms, product design to meet the highest safety standards and insights into the next generation needed for IoT software platform system architecture, data structures, and predictive algorithms.

For more information, please contact TIPS via email at: natasha@tips.org.za

TIPS Dialogues bring together academics, policymakers, civil society organisations, workers, and practitioners
to discuss important issues and share ideas on industrial policy.

TIPS is partnering with the Department of Trade Industry and Competition (the dtic).

Presentations

Dr Neva Makgetla (TIPS) – Services in industrial policy 

Dr Justin Visagie and Prof Ivan Turok (HSRC/UFS) – The Role of Services in the EconomyReflections on TIPS Working Paper

Research

Services and inclusive industrialisation – Neva Makgetla with Nokwanda Maseko and Itumeleng Mokoena (TIPS)

Background

Industrialisation cannot take off without adequate services such as logistics, engineering, finance and security, as well as human and social capital development. Moreover, the service sector generates around two thirds of the GDP and employment, and six out of seven jobs for women. An effective industrial policy, then, should incorporate measures to maximise the contribution of the service industries to inclusive industrialisation. To assist in understanding the role of the service industries in inclusive industrialisation in South Africa, this Development Dialogue provides a chance to engage on a recent TIPS paper that summarises the main debates around the role of services in industrial policy.

About the Speakers

Chair

Thandi Phele is Chief Director in dtic, sectors branch at the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic) and a TIPS board member. Since her appointment, she has been providing thought leadership to South African industrial policy and driving key programmes aimed at industrialisation and localisation. Key among these, she continues to lead the development and implementation of various masterplans led by the dtic: Automotives; Retail-Clothing, Textiles, Footwear and Leather; Poultry; Sugar; Steel and Metal Fabrication; and Furniture.
 
Presenters

Dr Neva Makgetla is a senior economist at TIPS. Makgetla has published widely on the South African economy and worked for many years in government.

Dr Justin Visagie is a Senior Research Specialist in the Inclusive Economic Development (IED) research programme at the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) and University of the Free State (UFS). Dr Visagie has expertise in microeconomic data analysis and has worked on a wide array of cross-sectional and longitudinal household datasets. His recent research projects cover issues of regional economic development, city-region economies, tradable services, spatial inequality and inclusion, social mobility, urbanisation, housing and migration.

Prof Ivan Turok holds the SARChI in City-Region Economies at the University of the Free State and is Distinguished Research Fellow at the HSRC. Prof Turok has extensive international experience of research on city and regional economic development, tradable services, urbanisation, housing, and labour markets.

PROGRAMME

14:30 Opening and welcome by Moderator: Thandi Phele (the dtic)

14:40 – 15:40 Presentations

• Dr Neva Makgetla (TIPS) – Key findings on Services paper
• Dr Justin Visagie (HSRC/UFS and Prof Ivan Turok (HSRC/UFS) – Presentation on Recognising the role of tradable service exports in the South African economy

TIPS Dialogues bring together academics, policymakers, civil society organisations, workers, and practitioners
to discuss important issues and share ideas on industrial policy.

TIPS is partnering with the Department of Trade Industry and Competition (the dtic).
For more information please contact TIPS via email at: daphney@tips.org.za

The Development Dialogue will be held in a hybrid format allowing for both in-person
and virtual participation. The in-person event will be held at the TIPS Offices
(234 Lange Street, Nieuw Muckleneuk, Pretoria) - space is limited

Opening and welcome by Moderator: Saul levin

Presentations

Nokwanda Maseko (TIPS) – Findings from the Imports Localisation and Supply Chain Disruption Study

Dr Neva Makgetla (TIPS) – Localisation and industrial policy 

Dr Tebogo Makube (the dtic) – Presentation to the TIPS localisation Development Dialogue

Media

South Africa 'missed the boat' on some localisation opportunities, but higher value industries can be pursued
Article by Natasha Odendaal, Engineering News 29 August 2023

Research

Localisation and industrial policy: Scopes, debates and instruments - Neva Makgetla (TIPS)

TIPS Imports localisation and supply chain disruption study Fourth Quarter 2022 - Nokwanda Maseko (TIPS)

The Imports localisation and supply chain disruption study is published quarterly: copies available here.

Background

Localisation has increasingly come to the fore in South Africa’s industrial policy initiatives, including all of the published Master Plans except agriculture. It effectively uses trends in imports to signal when demand could support competitive local production. This Development Dialogue provides a chance to engage on the latest evidence on the effectiveness of localisation strategies in easing constraints faced by local producers when competing with foreign suppliers. To that end, it draws on recent TIPS papers that review the conceptual framework for localisation and identify goods that South Africa now imports but could possibly manufacture competitively.

TIPS Dialogues bring together academics, policymakers, civil society organisations, workers, and practitioners to discuss important issues and share ideas on industrial policy. TIPS is partnering with the Department of Trade Industry and Competition (the dtic).

The Development Dialogue will be held in a hybrid format allowing for both in-person and virtual participation. 
The in-person event will be held at the TIPS Offices (234 Lange Street, Nieuw Muckleneuk, Pretoria) - space is limited. 
For more information please contact TIPS via email at: daphney@tips.org.za  

About the Speakers

Nokwanda Maseko is a senior economist at TIPS and has previously worked as a Budget Analyst at National Treasury and an Assistant Director at the Economic Development Department (EDD) focused on industrial policy.

Dr Neva Makgetla is a senior economist at TIPS. Makgetla has published widely on the South African economy and worked for many years in government.

Dr Tebogo Makube is Chief Director: Industrial Procurement at the dtic. Before joining the dtic, Dr Makube was the Programme Manager: Fiscal Policy at the Financial and Fiscal Commission. Prior to that he was Director: Provincial Infrastructure at the National Treasury. He has also held research and management positions at the Gauteng Provincial Legislature, National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) and Nokusa Consulting. He is also a Board Member of Proudly South African.

Presentations

A  Framework For Financing Investments in A Just Transition - Sandy Lowit, TIPS Research Fellow

A Transition for Whom? - Anda David, Senior Researcher Agence Francaise de Development (AFD)

Research

Full Report with Annexures: A Just Transition Transaction Framework:  A Framework for Financing Investments in a Just Transition

This report has been made possible by the support of the African Climate Foundation and the European Climate Foundation.

Media

TIPS sets out to create a South Africa-focused Just Transition Transaction Framework - Engineering News 21 August 2023

Launch

Opening - Gaylor Montmasson Clair, Senior Economist, TIPS

Welcome - by Shameela Soobramoney, CEO, National Business Initiative (NBI)

A Just Transition Transaction Framework: A First Iteration - Sandy Lowitt, Research Fellow, TIPS

Challenges and Questions faced by the Project Management Unit in the possible future allocation of JETP funding - Neil Cole, JEPT Project Management Unit

Insights on project and investment selection taking social outcomes into account - Anda David, Senior Researcher, AFD

Anglo American’s Approach to the Just Energy Transition - Hermien Botes Head of Sustainability Relations Anglo American

Presentations

A  Framework For Financing Investments in A Just Transition - Sandy Lowit, TIPS Research Fellow

A Transition for Whom? - Anda David, Senior Researcher Agence Francaise de Development (AFD)

Research

Full Report with Annexures: A Just Transition Transaction Framework:  A Framework for Financing Investments in a Just Transition

This report has been made possible by the support of the African Climate Foundation and the European Climate Foundation. 

Background

The South African Just Transition Financing discourse has been dominated by issues of global north and local private sector fund mobilisation and the unlocking of existing funding commitments. More recently, researchers and decision makers have been thinking about the deployment of such funds (when and if) they begin to flow. Just Transition fund deployment will require decision making about capital allocation to projects and investments. In order to achieve this, decision-makers will need to have a method by which to test what will constitute a Just Transition Transaction and how to rank just transition transactions against each other.

The launch of TIPS’s research on a Just Transition Transaction Framework: A First Iteration introduced the content of the framework and the process for improving the framework overtime through learning by doing and evidence collection and analysis. The first iteration of the framework will be continuously improved through testing, evidence gathering and analysis and further iterations will be developed to increase acceptability and applicability with an evolving set of stakeholders. TIPS events bring together academics, policymakers, civil society organisations, workers, and practitioners to discuss important issues and share ideas on industrial policy.

About the speakers

Gaylor Montmasson-Clair is a Senior Economist at TIPS. He leads TIPS's work on sustainability and just transition. He is the Facilitator for the South African Renewable Energy Masterplan (SAREM), the industrialisation plan for South Africa’s renewable energy value chain. Gaylor is also a Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg’s Centre for Competition, Regulation and Economic Development (CCRED).

Shameela Soobramoney is the CEO of the National Business Initiative (NBI), an independent coalition of the local and multinational businesses focusing on taking action to achieve social and environmental sustainability underpinned by good governance. She joined the NBI in 2023. She was previously the Chief Sustainability Officer of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (the JSE) As a sustainability specialist she has, inter alia, been a key contributor to the JSE’s work into climate change, the potential for a local market to trade in carbon credits and environment-related products, the development of a Green, Social and Sustainability bonds framework, impact investing, the JSE’s sustainability, innovation and CSI strategies as well as the annual sustainability investor briefing/showcase sessions.

Sandy Lowitt is a Research Fellow at TIPS. She has worked in the Provincial and National Government in matters related to Industrial Strategy and policy, as well as economic infrastructure projects such as the Gautrain. She is currently active in the Just Transition Finance space.

Neil Cole is Finance Manager at the JETP Project Management Unit. He has more than 20 years professional experience in the field of Public Finance and international financial relations. Between 2001 and 2013 he worked for the National Treasury of South Africa in senior management positions in the Budget Office and in the International Economic Policy divisions. While at the Treasury, Neil represented South Africa on the committees that drafted the Accra Agenda for Action and the Busan Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation. He currently teaches a course on public finance for social protection at the International Training Centre of the ILO. Neil joined the JETP Secretariat in July 2022. His undergraduate and post-graduate qualifications cover public administration/policy, politics.

Anda David is a senior researcher and the lead economist on inequality at the French Development Agency (AFD). She holds a PhD from Paris Dauphine University, specialising in development economics, with a focus on migration and labour markets. Her current research is centred on inequality and sustainability. Between 2004 and 2015, she regularly collaborated with various international organisations active on these issues such as OECD, ILO and World Bank. Anda David joined AFD’s research division in December 2015 and is currently the scientific coordinator of the AFD-EU Research Facility on Inequality. Since January 2021, she is based at the AFD regional bureau for Southern Africa in Johannesburg.

Hermien Botes is Head of Sustainability Engagement for Anglo American where she has worked for the past 15 years in various sustainability roles including human rights, strategy, ESG reporting and systems. Hermien’s current role involves engagement with civil society, human rights and two special projects – gender-based violence and the just energy transition. In late 2019, Hermien led the launch of Anglo American’s Living with Dignity programme, which includes a comprehensive suite of initiatives to tackle sexual and gender-based violence in mines and mining communities. Hermien was also a co-author of Anglo American’s Sustainable Mining Plan – now in its fifth year of implementation.

PRESENTATION

CBAM in Africa: A challenge and an opportunity - Seutame Maimele, TIPS Economist: Sustainable Growth

RESEARCH

TIPS Policy Brief: The European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism and implications for South African exports - by Lerato Monaisa and Seutame Maimele

MEDIA

Media article: SA's low carbon taxes will send money to EU coffers - Denene Erasmus, Business Day 27 July 2023

Background

The Development Dialogue provides a chance to explore the latest evidence in Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) from the global south. CBAM is a carbon border tax on embedded GHGs of carbon-intensive products imported into the European Union (EU). In 2019, the (EU) introduced the Fit for 55 policy package. The policy package aims to reduce the EU’s net greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Included in the policy package is the CBAM.

As of the 16th of May 2023, the regulation on CBAM was finally published in the official journal of the European Union, after it was finally adopted as law on the 10th of May 2023. The adoption of CBAM and CBAM like measures will have an impact on the global south countries. These measures will not only disrupt global trade flows, but they will also divert climate change responsibilities to the global south, and impact welfare of these economies.

This dialogue will focus on issues that arise from the introduction of these green trade (climate change) policies, specifically looking into CBAM, and how global south countries (including BRICS) can respond to these issues.

About the Speakers

Moderator
Gaylor Montmasson-Clair is a Senior Economist at Trade & Industrial Policy Strategies (TIPS). He leads TIPS's work on sustainability and just transition. He is the Facilitator for the South African Renewable Energy Masterplan (SAREM), the industrialisation plan for South Africa’s renewable energy value chain.

Presenters
Seutame Maimele is a Sustainable Growth Economist and a Research lead on Climate Change and Trade at Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies (TIPS).
Max Gruenig is a Senior Policy Advisor at the E3G Washington Office, focusing on US-EU climate diplomacy in a global context.

Panellists
Prof. David Luke is a professor in practice and strategic director at the Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa. Specialising in African trade policy and trade negotiations.
Kekeletso Mashigo is an admitted attorney of the High Court of South Africa.  She is currently Counsellor Economic and Legal at the Permanent Mission of South Africa to the WTO in Geneva, Switzerland, representing South Africa in various WTO Committees. Prior to that she was Head of Legal in the South African Department of Trade, Industry and Competition’s (the dtic) Trade Policy Division, responsible for legal opinions and disputes on international trade and investment issues. She has occupied various roles and was also previously Director: Multilateral Organisations at the dtic; seconded by the dtic as an Investment Expert to the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Investment Division; responsible for SA-EU Trade relations; and has also worked at South Africa’s National Treasury in the Legal Tax Design Unit focused on international and business tax policy.

For enquiries please contact Natasha@tips.org.za

TIPS Dialogues bring together academics, policymakers, civil society organisations, workers, and practitioners to
discuss important issues and share ideas on industrial policy.

TIPS is partnering with the Department of Trade Industry and Competition (the dtic).