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Eskom proposes that it would meet the proposed massive expansion by a mix of new coal, gas, nuclear power stations as well as some demand side management and renewables. The utility states that, as of November , there are currently 11, megawatts of plants in the "project execution phase". Of this it reported that megawatts has already been commissioned. To help fund the cost of the massive construction programme, Eskom has been granted permission to increase its electricity tariff by Rapid domestic demand for electricity prompted the South African utility, Eskom , to cut back power exports to neighboring countries.
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Eskom power exports to Botswana have been cut back and will cease entirely in when its contract expires. The World bank said this had the spillover effect of prompting the Botswana Power Corporation , a government owned utility, to build the Morupule B power station. Eskom's contracts with other countries are of longer duration than Botswana's. The contract with Namibia runs through to June , while the contract with Swaziland runs through to December The contract with Lesotho is "indefinite".
The contract for the Motraco aluminum smelter runs from December through to December , the Skorpion zinc mines from August through to January and Namdeb from October for an indefinite period. South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan announced in his budget speech that a carbon fee will be implemented in the financial year. The proposal is to implement the carbon fee at a fairly low level, and then define an increasing price path over time.
Existing Eskom power stations are [14] :. The following coal-fired power stations were mothballed in but are currently in the process of being recommissioned, which started in As part of its "new build" expansion plan, Eskom plans on building two new coal-fired power stations.
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These are:. See the Eskom article for details of the utility's gas-fired, nuclear and hydro power stations. In response to a request from Eskom for expressions of interest from private power producers, the Perth, Australia-based energy company, the Aviva Corporation , announced that it had expressed interest in developing the notional Mmamantswe Coal Project in Botswana as a major coal mine with an associated power station. Coal-fired power stations financed by international public investment institutions include: [17]. In late February , climate change activists and concerned individuals from about the world expressed concern that the World Bank would fund new coal-fired power stations proposed by the South African government-owned utility, Eskom.
One of the projects is the Medupi power station , a megawatt plant under construction in Lephalale in the country's northern region of Limpopo. Groups opposing the project, which includes Climate Justice Now, groundWork and the Federation for a Sustainable Environment, vowed to pressure country directors within the World Bank to vote against the loan and also said they would revive the World Bank "bond boycott" that was launched last decade to end structural adjustment programs and anti-environmental project funded by the Bank.
Inger Andersen, World Bank's director for sustainable development in Africa, said the loan would support the "responsible use of coal as an interim resource for power generation, given lack of viable alternatives". The opposition groups countered, that if granted, the loan would destroy the image the World Bank is portraying of a climate-friendly financier.
In order to power the new coal plants, over 40 new mines would have to be opened up in the region. The proposed plants would also increase utility rates to consumers.
First Boer War - Wikipedia
Large environmental groups such as the Sierra Club have signed on to a petition that opposes the loan. On March 8, it was announced that the UK and US threatened to withhold support for a World Bank loan intended to help South Africa build the new coal-fired power station. The UK and US opposed to the loan because they believe it will make it harder for South Africa to deliver emission cuts. The United States abstained from voting on the measure. Critics, however, were not pleased with the World Bank's decision to fund the coal plant, even though the loan had provisions for other energy technologies like wind and solar.
Other countries that abstained from the vote included the U. Eskom has been called the "worst polluter" on the continent of Africa. Eskom also accounts for more than 60 percent of all the electricity generated on the continent [23]. Export-Import Bank for a coal-fired power plant in South Africa, a move that drew criticism from environmental groups.
Eskom 's Kusile Power Station , to be constructed in South Africa's Mpumalanga Province, will include six units and have a total capacity of 4, megawatts. The U. Geological Survey lists the major coal mining operations and their production levels as being: [27]. Thubelisha, in South Africa's eastern Mpumalanga province, will produce up to The emigrants soon came into collision with Mosilikatze, raiding parties of Zulus attacking Boer hunters who had crossed the Vaal without seeking permission from that chieftain.
The volksraad at Winburg during this period continued to claim jurisdiction over the Boers living between the Orange and the Vaal and was in federation with the volksraad at Potchefstroom, which made a similar claim upon the Great Boers living north of the Vaal. He recognized the failure of the attempt to govern on the lines of the treaties with the Griquas and Basutos, and on the 3rd of February he issued a proclamation declaring British sovereignty over the country between the Orange and the Vaal eastward to the Drakensberg. Thereupon Pretorius, with those most bitterly opposed to British rule, retreated across the Vaal.
In Moshesh joined the republican party in the Sovereignty in an invitation to Pretorius to recross the Vaal. Many of the burghers would have at this time welcomed union with the Trans vaal , but learning from Sir George Grey that such a union would nullify the conventions of and and necessitate the reconsideration of Great Britain's policy towards the native tribes north of the Orange and Vaal rivers, the project dropped. By the Sand River Convention, independence had been granted to the Boers living " north of the Vaal ," and the dispute turned on the question as to what stream constituted the true upper course of that river.
In the yearsa Discovery large number of diggers had settled on the diamond of the fields near the junction of the Vaal and Orange rivers, which were situated in part on land claimed by the Fi Griqua chief Nicholas Waterboer and by the Free State. Save the Vaal river no frontier was indicated, and " boasting," writes Livingstone in his Missionary Travels, " that the English had given up all the blacks into their power.
Shimansky’s History of Diamonds in South Africa
The limit of concessions to the Boers had been reached, and Sir Charles Warren's force strong - had reached the Vaal river in January A rush of prospectors at once took place to the banks of the Orange and Vaal rivers, and resulted in considerable discoveries, so that in there was a mining camp of no less than 10, persons on the " River Diggings. But towards the close of stones were found at Jagersfontein and at Dutoitspan, far from the Vaal river, and led to a second great rush of prospectors, especially to Dutoitspan, and in to what is now the Kimberley mine in the neighbourhood of the latter.
The River Diggings on the Vaal river are still worked upon a small scale, but the production from this source is so limited that they are of little account in comparison with the mines in the blue ground. This is still more forcibly suggested by the remarkable eclogite boulder found in the blue ground of the Newlands mine, not far from the Vaal river, and described by T. When the lad, who had already taken part in fights with the Matabele and the Zulus, was fourteen his family settled north of the Vaal and were among the founders of the Trans vaal state.
Klerksdorp was one of the villages founded by the first Boers who crossed the Vaal , dating from Sir Harry, deeming no other course open to him, proclaimed February the country between the Orange and Vaal rivers British territory, under the name of the Orange River Sovereignty. The extension of British rule north of the Orange was opposed by Andries Pretorius, who, being defeated at Boomplaats, withdrew north of the Vaal , where, though not interfered with by the British, the Boers split up into several rival parties. The home government the first Russell administration , which had reluctantly consented to confirm Sir Harry Smith's annexation of the Orange River territory.
Whether or not a wiser policy on the part of Great Britain would have secured the continued allegiance of all the Boers it is impossible to say; the fact that numbers of Boers remained in Natal under British rule, and that the majority of the Boers who settled between the Orange and the Vaal desired to remain British subjects, points to that conclusion. In that year, following smaller finds of diamonds on the banks of the Vaal and Orange rivers, the diamond mines of Du Toits Pan and Bultfontein were opened up.
In the middle section, where both banks are in the colony, the Orange receives from the north-east its greatest tributary, the Vaal. The Vaal , within the boundaries of the colony, is increased by the Harts river from the north-east and the Riet river from the south-east, whilst just within the colony the Riet is joined by the Modder. From the north, below the Vaal confluence, the Nosob, Molopo and Kuruman, intermittent streams which traverse Bechuanaland, send their occasional surplus waters to the Orange.
The Great Trek, as it is called, lasted from to , the trekkers, who numbered about , founding communities with a republican form of government beyond the Orange and Vaal rivers, and in Natal, where they had been preceded, however, by British emigrants. The discovery of diamonds on the Orange river in , followed immediately afterwards by the discovery of diamonds on the Vaal river, led to the rapid occupation and development of a tract of country which had hitherto been but sparsely inhabited.
In the Free State railway was still farther extended to Viljoen's Drift on the Vaal river, and in it reached Pretoria and Johannesburg. Their action in what is known as the Vaal River Drift question will best illustrate the line of action which the Trans vaal government believed it expedient to adopt. The Cape government, for the purposes of carrying the railway from the Vaal river to Johannesburg, had advanced the sum of f, to the Netherlands railway and the Trans vaal government conjointly; at the same time it was stipulated that the Cape government should have the right to fix the traffic rate until the end of , or until such time as the Delagoa Bay - Pretoria line was completed.
In order to compete against this very high rate, the merchants of Johannesburg began removing their goods from the Vaal river by waggon. Thereupon President Kruger arbitrarily closed the drifts fords on the Vaal river, and thus prevented through waggon traffic, causing an enormous block of waggons on the banks of the Vaal. Even the relief force from Natal struggled to maintain its line of communications, and few war correspondents reached the front none covered the first two battles and only three observed the final battle at Majuba.
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As the war lasted little more than two months, contained a series of unrelieved disasters, and divided British opinion about its propriety, it aroused scant enthusiasm at home. Indeed the newspapers, at least latterly, were preoccupied with the assassination of the Tsar and the death of Benjamin Disraeli. As the force advanced into the eastern Transvaal, it endured extreme heat and had to move through thick bush. As the kopje was honeycombed with caves and crannies, some of which were protected by stone walls, artillery proved relatively ineffectual, forcing the infantry to storm the kopje and take terrace after terrace in fierce hand-to-hand fighting.
The attacking force had suffered, too:. We had been fighting for seven hours and our casualties are very heavy, probably is under the mark as the Swazis lost a great number. Almost all the wounds have been inflicted at close quarters, they are as a rule serious and probably the death toll will yet be considerably swelled. As a battle Ulundi could not be compared to this one where we were the attackers. Lieutenant-Colonel Philip R.
As the beggars kept trying to bolt out of the caves. You see a British soldier is all very well, but he is no match in moving about hills — for these naked savages. Gladstone in April , only to be dashed by the inability of the cabinet, split between Whigs and Radicals, to devise an agreed policy. Thereafter Boer grievances mounted over the revenue-raising activities of Sir W. Owen Lanyon, the administrator of the Transvaal, and the behaviour of the British soldiery. The British forces in the Transvaal were reduced when Wolseley departed, and were cut again under Colley until he had only 1, men, with no cavalry and only four guns.
Desertions reached unprecedented numbers as soldiers were tempted by the propinquity of the diamond fields and mining interests in the Orange Free State. They have all the narrowness of Scottish elders without their good qualities. With about 7, Boers liable for active service, the first shots were fired at the garrison at Potchefstroom and, three days later, shots were exchanged near Pretoria. The first engagement of the war occurred at about The column, under the command of Anstruther, included a convoy of thirty-four wagons stretching out over a mile on the road, accompanied by men of all ranks, 3 women and 2 children.
En route since 5 December, the column marched with little sense of apprehension — only 2 mounted scouts preceded it, the regimental band about strong and unarmed was playing at its head, and a rearguard of twenty men was about — yards behind the last of the wagons. Conductor Ralph Egerton Army Service Corps , who was one of the more lucid commentators, had ridden ahead with the colonel and his adjutant, Lieutenant H.
Harrison, to select a camping ground. When the band ceased playing, they turned around to see armed, mounted Boers, spaced about ten paces apart, along a ridge on the left-hand side of the road. Egerton rode to meet a Boer horseman under a flag of truce, and took a sealed despatch from him to the colonel, who had dismounted. The despatch stated that the Transvaal had been declared a republic, and that any advance by the column beyond the spruit would be interpreted as a declaration of war. Given two minutes in which to reply, Anstruther insisted that he must follow orders and proceed towards Pretoria.
The two parties returned to their respective forces, but the Boers, who had filtered through thorn bushes to about yards from the column, opened fire before Anstruther rejoined his column. The opening volleys caught the column before it could deploy, hitting soldiers lolling on the tops of three wagons as well as the unarmed cooks, grooms, bandsmen and prisoners seeking ammunition, and all but three of the rear guard. Many, like the colonel, had suffered severe and multiple gunshot wounds — an average of five wounds per man — as calculated by Dr Harvey Crow, who came out from Pretoria to tend the wounded.
Another twenty men would die of their wounds, including Anstruther after his leg was amputated. If the British were appalled at the spectacle of the Boers riffling through the pockets of the dead, they appreciated the permission granted them to pitch their tents, care for the wounded and bury their dead.
Egerton and Sergeant Bradley were also allowed to seek further medical assistance from Pretoria enabling Egerton to smuggle out the regimental colours, to the immense relief of the dying Anstruther. All soldiers, other than the thirty left to tend the injured, were taken prisoner and others were removed to Heidelberg when they recovered from their wounds. Dr Crow, who spent three months tending the wounded, expressed admiration for the calm and courageous way that Anstruther met his death, for the many acts of kindness by local Boers and for the unremitting efforts of Dr Ward, the regimental surgeon, and Mrs Smith on behalf of the wounded.
The loss of men out of our small garrison was no trifling one, and the moral effect, of course, much greater. Delays in procuring transport and in moving soldiers across rain-sodden terrain prevented the Natal field force from assembling fully before 19 January. Morris 58th , 32 prevented any advance on 27 January, but, on the following day, Colley ordered an advance with four companies of Rifles, five of the 58th, the mounted squadron, most of the Naval Brigade, some supporting troops and about fifty mounted police the remainder guarded the camp.
In a moment we were face to face with the Boers, who fired sharp at us. The Sergeant-Major, with his revolver, got right in amongst the men, and shot one dead, wounding another with his pistol, when he fell — horse and man shot down together. Private Joseph Venables, 58th , who was captured after the attack, gave another perspective:.