General news

An energy revolution is unfolding across Africa, driven less by governments than by citizens. Nowhere is it more visible than in South Africa, where homes and businesses are turning rooftops into power stations. 

South Africa marks Mandela Day every year on 18 July, honouring a legacy rooted in service, dignity, and collective responsibility. As part of its Mandela Day observance, Team Harith visited St Janes De Chantal Home and took part in a weeklong programme of service grounded in presence and purpose.

Harith has partnered with global digital communications leader Cisco to turn its Sandton head office into Africa’s smartest building—a seamlessly connected, technology-driven space designed for efficiency, sustainability, and occupant comfort.

The announcement made last year that a Harith-led consortium has acquired an infrastructure fund with stakes in assets including Lanseria International Airport and Kelvin Power Station for R6.5 billion earned Harith the much-sought-after Private Equity Deal of the Year award at the DealMakers Annual Gala Awards. This prestigious accolade cements Harith’s position as the leading Pan-African private equity infrastructure investment player on the continent.

During the 2022 Global Citizen Festival that took place in Accra, Ghana, GC’s investment partner Harith announced that it has officially joined the United Nations framework convention on climate change’s race to net zero. Over the next two years, Harith will work closely with GC to develop near-term and long-term climate change targets. Harith CEO Sipho Makhubela and founder, group executive director, and GC patron, Tshepo Mahloele called on African governments and business leaders to join this critical endeavour.

Africa’s facing the worst of the climate crisis, but her people have stepped up with solutions. Nothing can top the resilience of Africa’s people; in the face of adversity, Africa responds with boundless creativity designed to benefit an entire region, or better, the entire continent. This is true of many situations — but for right now, we’re going to look at how it rings true for the continent’s battle against climate change.

Tshepo Mahloele, co-founder and group executive director, was announced as the new Patron in Africa for the Global Citizen movement. The announcement was made at launch events for the 2022 Global Citizen campaign in Johannesburg, South Africa and Lagos, Nigeria on 29 March. The Global Citizen is an international advocacy group that brings together world leaders, celebrities, philanthropists from around the world to lead campaigns that address socio-economic challenges in the developing world.

Harith General Partners, which funds infrastructure development across Africa, is pushing ahead with plans to build the first gas-fired power plants in South Africa’s industrial hub of Gauteng and is exploring options to source the fuel. The fund manager wants to build two gas-fired plants at the site of its coal-fired Kelvin Power Station, which lies east of Johannesburg close to the city’s main airport.

This follows the Economic Recovery Plan presented by President Cyril Ramaphosa at the Joint Sitting of Parliament on October 15, where he announced that the State would be granting third-party access to the core rail network within the next 12 months. Under this new policy private freight rail operators will be allowed to operate on the state-owned rail infrastructure alongside and complementary to Transnet.

Leading Pan-African infrastructure financier, Harith General Partners announced at its Annual Investors’ Feedback meeting last week that Mr Sipho Makhubela has been appointed as its Chief Executive Officer with effect from 1 September 2020. Sipho’s appointment follows Mr Tshepo Mahloele’s request to step aside as Harith’s CEO earlier this year after 14 years of successfully developing signature infrastructure projects on the African continent.

During the month of August, South Africa commemorates women for their contribution to the liberation of the country from apartheid and colonialism. In addition, this month is also used to celebrate the strides women have made to take their rightful leadership positions in society. In tandem with this, Financial Mail of 27 August 2020, published stories of some of our high-calibre female professionals about how they have been inspired by working in the infrastructure space and the impact it has on the lives of Africans across the continent.

Historically, strategic infrastructure investments have altered the trajectory of a country’s economic and social development. From America’s Hoover Dam to Dubai’s international airport, infrastructure can transform people’s path to prosperity and propel entire nations to the global stage. I firmly belief we can achieve the same for Africa. It only takes leadership.

Aboadze, Ghana – 12 December 2016 – Amandi Energy Limited (Amandi Energy) today announced that it has reached financial close and begun construction of the $550 million Amandi Energy Power Plant, a 192 megawatt (MW) combined cycle dual-fuel power project in Aboadze, Ghana.

​On behalf of Association of Black securities and Investment Professionals (“Absip”), It gives me great pleasure to congratulate Harith General Partners on being selected as one of the finalists for the 2015 ABSIP Financial Services Sector Awards under the Categories Company with Developmental Impact in the Country & Project Financier of the Year.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, March 24, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Lake Turkana Wind Power Project meant to add an existing 300MW of reliable, low cost wind energy to the national grid of Kenya reached a critical milestone following the signing of the financial agreements in Nairobi, Kenya. “The signing of the over US $870m financing agreements represents a major breakthrough to actualizing the biggest clean power energy project in Africa, spanning years of negotiations and fundraising,” says Tshepo Mahloele, CEO of Harith General Partners.

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank on Tuesday, December 17, 2013 in Tunis, approved a US $25-million equity investment in the Second Pan-African Infrastructure Development Fund (PAIDF-2), a private equity fund investing in infrastructural development, private sector competiveness and regional integration in Africa.

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (“AfDB”), on Wednesday 30th October, approved a USD 20 million equity investment in the ARM-Harith Infrastructure Fund (“ARMHIF”), a new indigenously-managed specialist private equity Infrastructure Fund set up by Asset & Resource Management Company Ltd (“ARM”) in partnership with Harith General Partners Pty (“Harith”) of South Africa, and its specialist team of fund management professionals.

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) – Key banks and pension funds are interested in contributing to Africa’s new infrastructure development fund, the fund’s Chief Executive said on Tuesday as it woos international partners. Designed to help improve and develop ports, roads and rail in the world’s poorest continent, the Pan African Infrastructure Development Fund (PAIDF) was officially launched in July. It hopes to attract $20 billion over its 15-year lifespan. “We’ve had preliminary discussions with institutions like Calpers (the California Public Employees’ Retirement Fund, the biggest U.S. pension fund) … We’ve told them about this fund. They are interested,” Chief Executive Tshepo Mahloele said.

By Pascal Fletcher – Accra, Ghana (Reuters, Sapa-AFP) African public and private investors plan to finance highways, hydro-power dams and other infrastructure through a continent-wide fund that puts hard cash behind the goal of a more united Africa. African ministers officially launched the Pan African Infrastructure Development Fund late on Sunday at an African Union summit in Ghana that is debating how to speed up integration of the world’s poorest continent.

​Today the President announced Power Africa, a new initiative to double access to power in sub-Saharan Africa. More than two-thirds of the population of sub-Saharan Africa is without electricity, and more than 85 percent of those living in rural areas lack access.

The Pan African Infrastructure Development Fund (PAIDF), created to raise funding for regional infrastructure on the continent, has opened its doors to international investors and is starting a second funding round. The fund, which achieved its first close with $625m in commitments from African investors, was anchored by a $250m commitment initiated by the Government Employees Pension Fund, with the balance of funds from other African institutions.

Eight initial investors have raised US$625 million of the targeted $1 billion which will assist in addressing Africa’s critical shortage of equity investment in basic infrastructure. The PAIDF provides an investment opportunity for investors seeking exposure to infrastructure across the African continent. This forms part of efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals set out in the United Nations Millennium Declaration in September 2000, as well as to eradicate poverty and develop global partnerships for development.