About the Energy Partnership

Both countries established the South African-German Energy Partnership in 2013 in order to join forces and mutually profit from each other’s experiences, expertise and lessons learnt. The Energy Partnership complements the ongoing successful cooperation- and dialogue-programs in the energy sector between both countries, for example, the South African-German Energy Programme SAGEN.

The South African-German Energy Partnership aims at developing sustainable and country-specific solutions for dealing with the opportunities and challenges involved in the transition to clean energy.

At its core stands the high-level intergovernmental dialogue focussing on strategic topics of energy policy. Building on the political dialogue concrete cooperation projects are implemented using instruments such as expert workshops, dialogue formats, trainings and capacity building, and delegation visits. Here the private sector perspective plays a key role in order to create a productive and sustainable business environment for innovation and economic cooperation.  

Both countries pursue the following objectives:

• Establishing an intergovernmental dialogue on effective and efficient policy solutions for a secure, environmentally friendly, and economically successful energy system.

• Implementing joint cooperation projects to put sustainable energy solutions into practice.  

• Cooperating closely with the private sector of both countries by considering energy companies’ perspectives on policy matters and by using their technical expertise and experience.

• Creating synergies between ongoing bilateral energy cooperation projects.

Partnership Structure

The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) and the South African Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) lead the Energy Partnership. Additional key stakeholders are governmental departments such as the South African Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) and Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) as well as the German Federal Department for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Federal Department for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Customer Protection (BMUV). In addition, private companies and business associations, research institutions, think tanks and other non-governmental organisations are participating in the partnership activities. Municipalities and regional governmental bodies of both countries are important partners, too.

A High-Level Steering Committee co-chaired by the highest executive officials from South Africa and Germany is foreseen to meet annually, to provide a platform for dialogue between high-level policy makers from both countries.

An Energy Working Group meeting is anticipated twice a year with participation of public and private stakeholders from Germany and South Africa, with the aim to elaborate on specific topics under the Energy Partnership.

The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH runs the Secretariat of the Energy Partnership from its Pretoria offices. The Secretariat has a coordination function and follows-up the implementation plan of the partnership. The BMWK and DMRE review the focus topics of the partnerships regularly. The Secretariat organises all the activities under the Energy Partnership and is the first port of call for everyone being interested in the partnership’s activities. The Secretariat works in close coordination with the South African-German Energy Programme (SAGEN) and other bilateral development cooperation initiatives.