Mezzanine is active in
Mezzanine is active in developing e-vouchers for traders. Credit: Vodacom What role is Mezzanine playing in the Vodacom African story? Mezzanine, a subsidiary of Vodacom, is a technology company that co-creates fitfor-purpose digital solutions to empower productive societies across Africa. Some of the solutions include in the health space with Vodacom’s Stock Visibility Solution (with over 3 400 healthcare facilities registered) and more recently, the Electronic Vaccination Data System (EVDS) that enabled South Africa’s Covid-19 national vaccine rollout. The latter supported the provision of 39-million vaccine doses to 22.8-million citizens over the course of the pandemic. In agriculture, initiatives like eVuna – Connected Farmer, provide a digital platform that connects over four-million smallholder farmers to enterprise services across widely dispersed areas and provides them with, inter alia, access to financial services, information and markets. This is available in the Connected Farmer packages currently being used in Kenya, South Africa, Zambia and Tanzania. In the commercial agriculture space, MYFARMWEB enables farmers to collate precision agriculture sensor (IoT) datasets and overlay data layers in relation to each other to support day-to-day decisionmaking. This started in South Africa and has been introduced to several Sub- Saharan African countries. In addition, Mezzanine was also behind the development of the first virtualwheeling platform in South Africa. This enables enterprises with a distributed geographical footprint to access renewable energy and achieve decarbonisation targets while being reimbursed by Eskom. T Vodacom and Eskom sign first virtual-wheeling agreement In a first of its kind in South Africa, Vodacom signed a virtual-wheeling agreement with Eskom in August 2023 that will help accelerate efforts to solve the country’s energy crisis. In addition to adding capacity to the nation’s power grid, this agreement, a Vodacom innovation which has been co-developed with Eskom, will also play a significant role in moving Vodacom closer to its goal of sourcing 100% of its electricity demand from renewable energy sources by 2025. This agreement will now enable Vodacom to execute the next phase of this innovative solution, securing Independent Power Producers (IPPs) under the same terms and conditions which underpin its agreement with Eskom. Vodacom Group CEO Shameel Joosub said, “Vodacom’s partnership with Eskom is transformational in that our virtual-wheeling solution will enable South Africa’s private sector to participate in resolving the energy crisis which continues to impact the country’s economy. It also provides a blueprint for other South African corporates to adopt, as we pool our collective resources with the common objective of bringing an end to loadshedding. The virtualwheeling solution has the potential to be fast-tracked, depending on the available licensed capacity of IPPs.” The energy crisis in South Africa has been devastating for many businesses. Vodacom South Africa spent more than R4-billion on backup power solutions and R300-million in the past financial year alone on operational costs such as diesel for generators. Traditional wheeling typically involves a one-to-one relationship between an IPP and a buyer using the national grid to convey their energy. While the concept of traditional wheeling is fairly common practice globally, it has certain limitations for companies with complex operating environments. The virtual-wheeling solution addresses these challenges. After a successful pilot phase, which concluded in 2022, and following rigorous testing, the newly co-developed solution is accessible to the public and private sector on a larger scale. The blueprint provides an easy-to-follow roadmap for others in the private sector, effectively involving those who want to benefit from cost saving in the process of stabilising South Africa’s grid and reducing overall emissions. 24
CLEAN ENERGY NOT WAITING, BUT ACTING The Shoprite Group, active in 10 African countries, is investing heavily in fighting climate change. The Shoprite Group has almost doubled the amount of renewable energy used in its operations to 103 234MWh. In the 2022 financial year, the figure was 54 138 MWh. The annual international conference which forces the world to think about carbon emissions, COP28, was held in December 2022 in Dubai. But the Shoprite Group’s CSI and Sustainability Manager Sanjeev Raghubir says that the world can’t wait before taking action: “Events like COP28 are absolutely crucial, but we – business, government, civil society, humankind in general – can’t and mustn’t wait for their decisions. “This is especially true in the African context. Despite contributing the least of any region to global greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions, the continent is being affected disproportionately by climate change.” It’s why, Raghubir adds, the Group invests heavily in reducing its carbon footprint across all aspects of its operations, with energy consumption a key priority. Shoprite’s doubling of its supply of clean energy was achieved by increasing the amount of renewable energy bought from landlords and other suppliers by 91%. “We have also reduced electricity consumption by 161-million kWh through our LED lamp replacement project, and our network of solar-panel installations now cover the equivalent of more than 26 soccer fields,” says Raghubir. The Group’s solar photovoltaic (PV) facilities now generate enough clean energy to power nearly 4 800 homes for a year, and it is the only African company to have earned a place on the Carbon Disclosure Project’s Supplier Engagement Leaderboard, for taking action to measure and reduce climate risk within its supply chain in the 2022 financial year. The retailer’s three-pronged approach includes reducing consumption, expanding its installed capacity of renewables and purchasing electricity in collaboration with independent power producers (IPPs). “We’ve increased the amount of electricity we’re buying from landlords and other suppliers by 91%. That’s progress by any measure. The next step is wheeling, buying electricity from an IPP through the existing transmission network.” Achieving that would be a massive step forward, says Raghubir, but will require greater collaboration between various stakeholders to establish a national wheeling framework. “In the interim, we will continue to improve energy efficiency wherever we can, and to this end the Group has embarked on a refrigeration project. We’ll also continue to install solar wherever it’s viable, whether on rooftops or carports. “Naturally we watched the negotiations at COP28 keenly, but at the Shoprite Group we’ve set and are pursuing science-based targets to reduce our carbon emissions throughout our operations – in stores, distribution centres and transportation – with a sense of urgency.” Solar panels at Shoprite’s Centurion facility. 25
