By Marcia Moyana & Thabo Molelekwa for Oxpeckers
A R4.7-billion green hydrogen project promised jobs, industrial development and investment for communities in the Vaal Special Economic Zone (SEZ).
But more than two years after it was announced as part of South Africa’s evolving energy transition, the site where the Hydrogen Valley Innovation Hub was meant to rise remains undeveloped.
When Oxpeckers visited the earmarked site in Rietspruit, about a kilometre from Sebokeng, in February and March 2026, there were no construction vehicles, fencing or signs of development. Instead, the land lay open and undisturbed, with crops growing where the flagship green-energy facility had once been promised.
The project forms part of the government’s broader Hydrogen Valley strategy, which aims to position South Africa as a global player in green hydrogen (GH2), a zero-carbon fuel produced via electrolysis powered by renewable energy.
The innovation hub was widely publicised in 2023 as a “first on the African continent”. It forms part of a government-led SEZ in Gauteng designed to revitalise the Sedibeng district – including Emfuleni, Midvaal and Lesedi municipalities – into a green-energy industrial and agricultural hub. It was expected to begin operating in January 2025 and to create up to 400 jobs in its first year – in a region afflicted by steel mill closures and job losses.
The innovation hub is reportedly anchored by a hydrogen fuel-cell manufacturing facility – known as Project Phoenix – developed by Mitochondria Energy, an independent power producer founded in 2012 by entrepreneur Mashudu Ramano, who owns 75.5% of the company. The Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) holds the remaining 24.5%.
This story was produced by Oxpeckers Investigative Environmental Journalism and shared with Scrolla.Africa as part of a content partnership. Read the full investigation on Oxpeckers.org
Pictured above: The Hydrogen Valley Innovation Hub was meant to start operating in January 2025 and promised to create several hundred jobs in its first year, yet the site where it is meant to stand remains empty.
Image source: Ihsaan Haffejee
