- Chamber says a ready pipeline of private, development-finance-backed investments can deliver President Chapo’s vision of “transforming gas into industry, into income and real opportunities for Mozambicans”
Maputo, 17 August 2026 — As South Africa formally assumes the Chairpersonship of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) at the 46th Summit in Durban, the South African Chamber of Business in Mozambique (SACBM) has submitted a position paper to the governments of Mozambique and South Africa calling for the Temane–Inhambane Energy Hub to be championed as a national flagship of Mozambique’s resource-transformation agenda and as a leading deliverable of the two countries’ Fourth Bi-National Commission (BNC).
At the 4th BNC in Maputo on 3 December 2025, the two Heads of State adopted 99 decisions, signed a Memorandum on Energy Cooperation, and jointly launched Sasol’s integrated hydrocarbons infrastructure at Inhassoro — a US$760 million facility producing natural gas, light oil and Mozambique’s first locally produced cooking gas, with the 450 MW Temane power plant and the Temane–Maputo transmission line to follow. Speaking at the launch, President Daniel Chapo said the project “marks a strategic shift, symbolising a country that has stopped viewing its resources from the outside and has begun transforming them within its borders — with vision, ambition and a sense of national sovereignty and independence.”
File photo: e South African Chamber of Business in Mozambique (SACBM)
SACBM’s paper sets out a next wave of private investments for the hub — spanning gas-fired electricity for export into the region through the Southern African Power Pool, new upstream and midstream investment, Mozambican-registered infrastructure companies, and a dedicated financing facility for Mozambican small and medium enterprises in the energy supply chain — and calls on both governments to conclude the hub’s enabling agreements and to establish a standing South Africa–Mozambique corridor dialogue during the chairmanship year.
“The President has defined the vision: transforming gas into industry, into income and real opportunities for Mozambicans. Our members exist to help deliver it — with committed private capital, development-finance backing, and companies registered and hiring here in Mozambique,” said Ike Cha (Isaac Chalumbira), Founder and Secretary General of SACBM.
“The communities of Inhassoro, Govuro and Vilankulo must see the benefit of this hub in their homes, schools and businesses. That is the test our members set for themselves — jobs that outlast construction, local companies paid on time, and energy that reaches Mozambican families,” Mr Ike Cha added.
SACBM noted that South Africa’s SADC Chairpersonship — held under the theme of resilient, sustainable and inclusive industrialisation through infrastructure development — creates a unique twelve-month window for the two governments to convert the BNC’s signed commitments into completed agreements, and said the Chamber stands ready to serve as private-sector secretariat to a bilateral corridor dialogue.
About SACBM: The South African Chamber of Business in Mozambique represents more than 300 South African companies employing over 42,000+ mostly local Mozambicans, invested and operating in Mozambique across energy, infrastructure, logistics, financial services, retail and industry. SACBM promotes formal, transparent and mutually beneficial trade and investment between the two countries.
Source: South African Chamber of Business in Mozambique (SACBM) / Press Release
