Concepts of ‘plural, nodal forms of governance’ and ‘constitutive regulation’ are used to analyse how an industrial policy elite spanning public and private spheres formed in conjunction with the minerals/industrial/energy core economy. Government, in collaboration with minerals industries and electricity monopoly Eskom, employed state capitalism, as well as sophisticated control and surveillance of migrant labour to structure a system to ensure cheap energy. Democratization has led to the involvement of new electricity policy actors and attempts to reform the electricity sector. An electricity supply crisis, new energy technologies, environmental policy, and renewed attempts by government and civil society to hold Eskom accountable have led to cracks in the system. Eskom has aligned itself with a new political elite. Eskom and coal mining for electricity generation continue to dominate with continuing effects on the local and global environment.