South Africa Renewable Projects Lose 90% of Jobs After Construction, Leaving 16,561 Permanent Roles
Updated
Updated · BusinessLIVE · Jul 13
South Africa Renewable Projects Lose 90% of Jobs After Construction, Leaving 16,561 Permanent Roles
2 articles · Updated · BusinessLIVE · Jul 13
Summary
130,877 construction jobs across 65 South African renewable projects fell to 16,561 permanent or full-time roles once operations began, Oxpeckers’ #PowerTracker analysis found.
About 70,000 jobs created under the REIPPP since launch include only roughly 6,000 permanent posts, because solar and wind plants need far fewer workers after the six-month-to-two-year build phase ends.
Northern Cape projects illustrate the pattern: Adams Solar Park dropped from 167 construction jobs to six permanent roles, while Longyuan De Aar 2 North supports about 45 operational jobs; Redstone is an outlier with about 600 because concentrated solar power is more labor-intensive.
Union and policy analysts said the drop leaves communities with short-lived benefits and weak retraining prospects for workers displaced from coal, unless new projects keep being built.
Industry groups argue local manufacturing, supply chains and policy certainty could create more durable employment, with the wind sector saying planned 43GW deployment by 2042 could support 25,000 to 30,000 jobs by 2030.