Outward foreign direct investment from South Africa’s energy sector and the transfer of environmentally sound technologies to Uganda’s energy sector

Abstract

Following the end of apartheid in 1994, outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) from South Africa has been on the increase. However, the content of South African OFDI has remained an understudied topic. This article explores whether intra-regional flows of FDI from emerging African countries carry environmentally sound technologies (ESTs) to developing African countries. It examines whether and how OFDI from South Africa’s energy sector transfers ESTs to Uganda through a firm-specific case study of Eskom Enterprises and its subsidiary, Eskom Uganda Ltd. It employs secondary data from literature sources and primary data from interviews.