This is the untold story of South Africa’s technological state corporations, Eskom and Iscor. From the development of the Matimba and Medupi power stations to the importance of technology to both the apartheid and democratic regimes, this book challenges conventional politics and sheds light on the decades-long activity of South Africa’s technological state corporations. Ten years in the writing, this significant book digs deep into the evolution of large technical systems in South Africa from the late apartheid era into the age of democracy.

​This book explores the complex relationship between the South African government and two technological state corporations, Eskom and Iscor, during the apartheid era. The engineers of Eskom and Iscor drove technological developments in the Waterberg during the 1970s and 1980s, despite a relatively indifferent apartheid government. Today, the Waterberg is the site of Medupi, a multi-billion-rand power station that has contributed to Eskom’s huge debt and South Africa’s electricity supply crisis due to cost escalation and delay in completion. Medupi’s slow completion has contributed greatly to the persistence of South Africa’s electricity supply crisis.