Linda Mabhena-Olagunju is probably one of the few African investors who can break a smile at the mention of Donald Trump. It's difficult for Africa in a new world of US presidents' strange new world turmoil and tariffs, with the continent set to lose billions of dollars of aid and support.
reason? As a young lawyer, in 2007, Mabuena Olagunju locked Trump's legal team in court and won.
For a woman who grew up on candlelight in her grandparents' village in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, it's not a bad scalp.
Mabuena Olagunju received a Masters degree in International Law and Commercial Law from the University of Aberdeen on Scotland's windy northeast coast. Once the heart of the UK's oil and gas industry, the city now has the claim to be a green city. There is also a bus fleet that runs with zero emission hydrogen.
The young lawyer, in his early 20s, joined the municipally supported legal team of the Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group in his first attempt to turn the mighty winds on the rugged Scottish coast into green energy.
The wind farm raised Trump's rage. He claimed that the wind turbine ruined the view from Barmedi's Trump International Golf Link and went to court to fight it.
It was a court victory, not only won Mabuena Olagunju into a series of Spurs, but also helped Aberdeen cement green qualifications. More than a decade later, the windmills at Aberdeen's offshore wind farm are still spinning.
“It was the first wind farm I'd worked on, and part of my job was against Donald Trump, and here too I'm… a full circle,” she smiles wryly for 18 years.
“That's true, because we're sitting in a situation where we're back to squares now, in terms of questioning whether climate change is real or not. Can you imagine?”
Bringing green energy to South Africa
Although frank and cheerful, Mabuena Olagunju is not seen in magazine pages or ubiquitous meetings. She wears a light bump and is usually too busy to do interviews. Still, she was so well known that she was recognised in the list of 20 women of Africa's most powerful women, in order to make a living from Canny Black Echo Enforcement (BEE) deals, designed to correct economic imbalances in the aparthotel.
Currently, at 41, she is a veteran of the tough and frustrating green energy investment business in Africa, and can take more than five years to close.
In Dear's small Northern Cape farming town (population 42,000), a huge forest of creakling white metal stands as proof of her trade.
The turbines blow in the wind on the hill overlooking the town, generating vital electricity. Their drastic yet oddly quiet blade is 86 meters in diameter.
These blades are provided standing alongside two solar (PV) farms and produce 244 MW for the country's hardened power grid.
It took years of effort to reach the deal that Mabena Olagunju packed under the bee law. Dear Windmill trade has been attacked among China Long-Term, a subsidiary of China Energy Investment, owned by the state, Asia's largest wind power producer. Empowerment costume Muriro; Mabhena-Olagunju's own DLO energy resources.
From the lecture to the turbine rotation, it took about four years of negotiations and one year of document signing. Legal costs alone were estimated to be over $1 million. There was a mountain of shape not only due to the compliance of empowerment transactions, but also due to the form of environmental permits and tax forms.
A 20-year project is risky and anything can be wrong. The wind can fall, the sun can go behind the clouds too often, governments can change, investors can drop out, rules can change overnight.
If everything goes well, the wind farm can be built within about 20 months, but that's just the beginning to get your money back.
“Then we start looking at trickle dividends. The trickle dividends on the connections are very minimal in the first seven years. There's nothing to write about at home. It's not enough to pay for the operating costs,” she says.
“Returns have been affected due to competitive price bids. Tariffs have been low over the years, and we need to serve as a huge amount of debt, as is the case with black economic empowerment,” she says.
“Duty has been lowered over the years, but you need to serve lenders and remember what has happened over the past few years. You're paying more interest, and then your project isn't making enough profits to provide your debt and have trickle dividends to pay yourself.”
The South African government announced the results of the latest auction for independent electricity producers at the end of December, as well as news created for the harsh reading of the wind industry. The government awarded the status of “preferred bidders” to eight solar projects with a total capacity of 1,760 MW, but denied choosing a new wind capacity.
The limit of bees
Therefore, the transformation to green energy takes a long time. And while Bee has helped Mavena Olagunju build a foothold in the green industry, she says there are still restrictions on the country's empowerment framework.
De Aar may have windmills, but no one can service or modify them.
“If a wind farm has a fault, there are no electricians in the area that knows how to deal with some of these things. How is that possible in a town like Dear, the epicenter of the country's renewable energy?” she asks.
“According to current statistics from Irena, 85 million jobs will be created globally from renewable energies, but only 30% of people can actually take on those jobs, or they have the skills needed to balance it at 70%.
Seeing the gap in training for black workers, Mabuena Olagunju supported the EDTECH startup to help South Africans take part in the Green Energy Project.
“We then created a short course that offers in-person and online, using AI to help people learn at their own pace. This is an edtech startup focused on just-energy transitions and pondering people. We've trained 2,500 people so far.”
branching into Africa
From an investment perspective, Mabhena-Olagunju has a solid focus from Johannesburg Base to other parts of the African continent. She also owns a home in her husband's land, Nigeria.
The next big project is underway in Zambia. Build an on-site power plant for copper mines.
“Zambia is affected by climate change. A year or two ago they were suffering from severe droughts, and the majority of Zambia's electricity came from hydroelectric power plants. And Zambia is now receiving a large portion of its mines as its supply has dried up.
“But the big problem in Zambia is, like other African nations, and like other global states, the problem is grid infrastructure. Basically there is a lack of transmission lines to send that power from point A to point B.”
Mabhena-Olagunju believes grid infrastructure is the next big thing for African power game investors. She also proudly watches Zambian projects.
“It is an African consortium, completely African consortium. It is a collaboration between South Africa, Nigerians and Zambians.
It brings us back to Donald Trump. His cold shoulders especially for aid and investment in Africa.
“The truth presents an opportunity in a way, in a way, in my connection with the projects I am involved in. We need to start thinking inside and stop with this attitude of always wanting to be saved. No one is our only hope.
“Why are we in a position to rely heavily on external third parties to own and produce technology, that's what we're trying to drive our country. Ultimately, we're going to do what we do ourselves.
