Brenda Martin

Brenda Martin has played a leading role in South Africa’s energy transition for over 15 years. Her work has included community, civil society, public and private sector participation in both distributed and utility-scale power supply and planning. She played an instrumental role in ensuring that lobbying and advocacy efforts by civil society participating in the integrated planning process during 2010 and 2015 were organised and effective. Between 2016 and 2019, as the CEO of the SA Wind Energy Association (SAWEA), she led the successful wind industry campaign for public procurement of private power to resume. During this period, she hosted regular discussions between organised business, organised labour and civil society. Brenda is an Independent Advisor on South Africa’s Energy Transition and serves on two Community Trusts associated with wind farms in rural Eastern Cape. Brenda has an MPhil in Energy & Development (UCT, 2016). Her dissertation analysed the politics of electricity planning in the early years of South Africa’s energy transition.