Nafasi Technologies, a strategic venture between Nafasi Water Technologies and the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), reached a landmark milestone with the commissioning of the first module of its purpose-designed waste sludge processing facility at the Highveld Industrial Park in eMalahleni, Mpumalanga. The facility represents a significant step in commercialising a locally developed industrial solution that converts by-products from mine-impacted water treatment into valuable fertiliser inputs, turning an environmental liability into a productive manufacturing opportunity.
The IDC’s investment underscores its mandate to back high-impact, innovation-driven ventures that build new industrial capability, support localisation and unlock commercially viable responses to South Africa’s water-security and environmental challenges. As both funder and equity partner, the IDC is supporting the scale-up of a circular-economy platform that links mining, water treatment, chemicals manufacturing and agriculture in a single value chain.
A New Industrial Platform for Circular Water Infrastructure
The eMalahleni facility is engineered to recover and beneficiate waste sludge generated from mine-impacted water treatment processes, converting these by-products into targeted, commercially saleable chemical inputs for fertiliser production. The innovation lies not only in treating water, but in extracting further economic value from the residual waste stream, thereby reducing landfill disposal, lowering the long-term cost of treatment and creating a new domestic source of industrial chemicals. The facility is located in Mpumalanga, a province at the intersection of heavy industrial activity, coal-transition pressures, mine-water risk and significant agricultural demand.
“The Mpumalanga region needs investment in alternative industries that respond to the challenges of the energy transition and the long-term effects of coal mining on water resources. The engineering innovation at the heart of Nafasi Technologies approaches this holistically — strengthening catchment resilience while building a new industrial venture. The IDC’s development-finance approach enabled the incubation and deployment of these technologies in markets where early-stage industrial innovation carries significant technical and commercial risk,” said Suzie Nkambule, CEO of Nafasi Water Technologies.
“This is precisely the kind of investment the IDC is mandated to support, a locally developed technology platform with the potential to build new manufacturing capacity, localise imported inputs, strengthen water resilience and create a scalable model for industrial renewal in mining regions. Our role as funder and equity partner is to help de-risk innovation that can
unlock new productive sectors and deliver measurable developmental impact,” said Rian Coetzee, Divisional Executive for Industry Planning and Development.
The facility also serves as a replicable blueprint for how development finance can help convert early-stage industrial technologies into bankable, revenue-generating assets. By combining project development support, equity participation and long-term industrial partnership, the IDC is helping to move the venture beyond demonstration into a platform that can be replicated across other mining regions where mine-water treatment, waste reduction and local chemical production are strategic priorities.
Nafasi Water already operates mine-water reclamation facilities in the region, positioning the Highveld Industrial Park facility close to its primary feedstock sources. Over time, Nafasi aims to maximise the value extracted from waste by-products through further technology development, including the potential deployment of ion exchange processes to recover useful chemicals directly from mine-impacted water. This creates a pathway for continuous innovation, further industrial investment and the development of a South African circular water-technology capability with relevance beyond Mpumalanga.
