JM Mnisi, Chief director: trade and sector development, Department of Economic Development and Tourism, Mpumalanga

Mpumalanga constitutes 6.5% of South Africa’s land area, and is divided into three districts – Ehlanzeni, Nkangala and Gert Sibande – and 17 municipalities, said JM Mnisi, chief director of trade and sector development in the province’s Department of Economic Development and Tourism.

The Mpumalanga government has focused its efforts on addressing the “triple challenge” of poverty, inequality and unemployment, he said. “At the end of the day, all of us must have a better life; not only for us, but for the generations to come.”

The province was home to 4.7-million people in 2021, which meant a recorded population growth of around 1.6% a year, he said. Like South Africa, and the rest of the world, there were slightly more women than men in the province (50.8% female; 49.2% male), and 35.9% of the population was between the ages of 15 and 34.

The key economic sectors in Mpumalanga are mining and energy; agriculture, agro-processing and forestry; manufacturing; and tourism, Mnisi said. It is “critical” to balance the demands of each sector, he said.

Mpumalanga’s vast coalfields produce approximately 80% of South Africa’s coal, and the mining and energy sector contributes approximately 25% of Mpumalanga’s gross domestic product (GDP). This sector is the largest employer in Mpumalanga, taking in around 25% of the province’s workforce.

In addition to supplying South Africa’s predominantly coal-fired power stations, most of which are in Mpumalanga, coal mining enterprises situated in the province export a significant percentage of the province’s coal production to China, India, South Korea and Japan. Eleven of national power utility Eskom’s 13 coal-fired power stations are in Mpumalanga, accounting for 70% of the utility’s supply chain.

In addition to being critical to South Africa’s power supply, Mpumalanga is one of the country’s most productive and important agricultural regions, Mnisi said.

This includes the production of fruit and nuts, citrus fruit, meat and wool. Agro-processing also makes a valuable contribution to Mpumalanga’s provincial economy, as does forestry.

Mnisi said Mpumalanga’s “diverse” manufacturing sector accounts for 15% of its GDP, with fuel, petroleum and chemical products, and metals, machinery and appliances production, the two primary pillars of the sector.

World-class parks and reserves are the backbone of Mpumalanga’s vibrant tourism industry, Mnisi said.

A large part of Mpumalanga’s economy is built around mining, power generation and petrochemical production, all of which are leading contributors to the emission of the gases responsible for climate change.

That said, Mpumalanga is committed to lowering its greenhouse gas emissions, and the province enjoys vast natural resources that can be used to drive its transition to a green economy, he said. The Mpumalanga government is focused on ensuring a “just transition” to a more sustainable (green) economy.

Just transition is a catchphrase that encompasses a range of social interventions put in place to secure workers’ rights and livelihoods when economies are shifting to an economy powered by renewable energy and moving away from a purely extractive mode to one that is more reliant on recycling and other sustainable actions.

Turning to the policies that the Mpumalanga government uses to plot this transition, Mnisi listed these as:

• The National Development Plan 2030

• The Mpumalanga Vision 2030

• The Mpumalanga Economic Growth and Development Path

• The Mpumalanga Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan

Through these, the provincial government has identified principles that must underpin its economic activities and initiatives, including the need for robust policy and regulation, strategic procurement and improved spatial development.

The province is focused on promoting broad-based black economic empowerment, skills development that is linked to the five key job drivers in the province, economic participation and inclusive growth, business cooperatives and small and medium-sized enterprises. It wants to provide a favourable investment environment and improved infrastructure and logistics, Mnisi said.

Mpumalanga is also committed to the tenets of the 2105 Paris Agreement, an international treaty secured under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that promises to keep the global mean temperature rise to below 2°C above pre-industrial levels.

”We need to intensify our efforts to mitigate the climate change challenges we face,” said Mnisi. That is why the Mpumalanga government has put together a Green Economy Development Plan.

This plan will guide the province’s efforts to reduce the effects of its “brown economy” (one in which economic growth is largely dependent on environmentally destructive forms of activity, and on fossil fuels for power) by 2030. It is also envisaged that the plan will help the Mpumalanga government raise people’s sense of well-being and address the socio-economic and environmental challenges facing the province.

The plan rests on four pillars: energy production, water supply, the circular economy (a model of production and consumption that involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible) and “smart agriculture” (where technology is used to raise efficiency in the use of consumables such as water, and to optimise the use of human labour).

Among the strategies and mechanisms the Mpumalanga government uses to “grow” its green economy is the establishment of a Mpumalanga Green Cluster Agency, green “sub-clusters”, such as for water services or the circular economy, the enforcement of air pollution legislation and a programme of action on a just energy transition.