Building the Grid: the Electrification of South Africa, 1882-2000
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Building the Grid: The Electrification of South Africa, 1882-2000 by Mark Hackney 920208125 Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in the Department of Historical Studies of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Johannesburg supervised by Dr S. Sparks January 2018 ABSTRACT The analysis of South Africa’s state-run enterprises, also known as the parastatals, has typically focused on the relationship between capital and labour, with especial attention to the ways in which the country’s racial segregation and capitalism created and entrenched a system of racial capitalism. These analyses have been influenced by Neo-Marxist trends in South African historiography, which intended to critique the overarching racial social engineering of apartheid through case studies of the systems and organisations that were created to foster the growth of industry and a “modern” South African state. Central to the establishment of secondary industries was the development of a national electrical grid that could provide the cheap electricity to drive industrial growth. Far from being a simple process of building and connecting a series of power stations, the Electricity Supply Commission had to engage and compete with existing suppliers, including municipalities and private companies, in order to construct a nation-wide, interconnected electrical grid. This research examines the process of building Escom’s National Grid from a ‘systems building’ perspective, which takes a non-deterministic view of how social factors and technology influence each other to construct a large, complex technological system. By introducing the systems building theoretical and methodological framework, this dissertation seeks to determine what factors, aside from the relationship between capital and labour, shaped the formation of the National Grid. TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND FIGURES .........................................................................................................i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................................................................................... ii ABBREVIATIONS AND TERMINOLOGY ......................................................................................................... iii INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................. - 1 - 1. Literature Review ................................................................................................................................................ - 2 - 1.1 Systems, Systems Building, and Socially Constructed Artefacts........................................................... - 6 - 1.2 The Apartheid State, Modernisation, and Technopolitics .................................................................... - 14 - 2. Research Aims and Objectives .......................................................................................................................... - 17 - 3. A Note on Units and Currency .......................................................................................................................... - 18 - CHAPTER ONE – POWERING THE RAND: THE ELECTRIFICATION OF THE JOHANNESBURG MUNICIPALITY................................................................................................................................................. - 20 - 1. Gas Power, Failed Stations, and Trams: Early Electrification in Johannesburg ............................................... - 24 - 2. A Colonial Commission and a Colonial Law: Johannesburg, the Power Companies Commission, and the Transvaal Power Act of 1910 ........................................................................................................................... - 29 - 3. Interwar Changes, Post-War Integrations: From the Electricity Act of 1922 Onwards .................................... - 33 - CHAPTER TWO – “HARNESSING THE FALLS”: THE VICTORIA FALLS AND TRANSVAAL POWER COMPANY, 1906 – 1948 .................................................................................................................... - 42 - 1. “A Six Million Scheme”: Starting the Victoria Falls (and Transvaal) Power Company, 1906 – 1922 ............. - 45 - 2. Witbank’s Coal for Johannesburg’s Gold: The VFP after the 1922 Electricity Act, 1922 – 1948 .................... - 49 - 3. After Witbank: The Rand Extension Undertaking, Klip Power Station, and Vaal Power Station .................... - 54 - 4. Integration into the System: Escom’s Purchase of the VFP in 1948 ................................................................. - 56 - CHAPTER THREE – RAILWAYS, COOKING RANGES, AND RURAL SUPPLIES: ELECTRICITY OUTSIDE OF MINING AND SECONDARY INDUSTRY ............................................................................ - 62 - 1. The Cape Railways: Electrification in and around Cape Town ......................................................................... - 67 - 2. Railways in Natal: The SAR&H, Escom, and the Colenso Power Station ........................................................ - 68 - 3. The Cape Rural Supply System ......................................................................................................................... - 72 - 4. Requesting Rural Electricity Supply: The Boere-Lig-en-Krag (Ko-Operatief) Beperk and the Electricity Control Board ................................................................................................................................................................ - 74 - 5. Electricity and the Domestic Sphere: Appliance Hire-Purchase Plans and Advertising ................................... - 77 - CHAPTER FOUR – “RESOURCE CONSTRAINTS AND THE NATIONAL INTEREST”: NUCLEAR POWER, BANTUSTANS, TOWNSHIPS, AND LINKING THE NATIONAL GRID, 1960 – 2000........... - 84 - 1. Completing the Interconnections: Connecting the National Grid ..................................................................... - 86 - 2. “Thousands of Experts”: Escom’s Nuclear Power Projects, 1960 – 1990 ........................................................ - 92 - 3. Electrifying Non-White Areas: Electricity in Townships and Bantustans ........................................................ - 99 - CHAPTER FIVE – THE NATIONAL GRID AS A HUGHESIAN LARGE TECHNOLOGICAL SYSTEM . - 102 - CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................................. - 113 - 1. Conclusions on the Research Aims and Objectives ........................................................................................ - 113 - 2. Limitations and Associated Recommendations for Future Research .............................................................. - 114 - BIBLIOGRAPHY .............................................................................................................................................. - 116 - LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND FIGURES Figure 1 - Map of Escom's Areas of Supply in 1929 ............................................................... - 9 - Figure 2 - Map of Escom's Areas of Supply in 1944 ............................................................. - 10 - Figure 3 - Organisational Diagram of the VFP and Related Entities ....................................... - 44 - Figure 4 - Electricity Sales to Category of Consumer in 1930 .............................................. - 63 - Figure 5 - Electricity Sales to Category of Consumer in 1940 .............................................. - 64 - Figure 6 - Electricity Sales to Category of Consumer in 1950 .............................................. - 64 - Figure 7 - Traction Consumer Sales, 1927-2000 ................................................................... - 65 - Figure 8 – Domestic and Streetlighting Sales, 1927-2000 ..................................................... - 83 - Figure 9 - Total Electricity Sales per Annum, 1926-2000 ................................................... - 107 - Figure 10 - Map of Eskom's Operational Power Stations, 2017 .......................................... - 111 - i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Firstly, to my family. Thanks for the support, love, and willingness to operate an extra camera during archive visits over the past five years. We’ve laughed, cried, despaired together for years, but the fact that most of it has been laughter is fantastic. Mom, for the coffee and staying cool while I was freaking out about finding sources or meeting deadlines. Dad, for feeding the pigeons so that they would sit next to my window during the day and keep me from having