Karpowership
Eco-justice group The Green Connection has welcomed the latest decision by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment to suspend the environmental impact assessment in Saldanha Bay in the Western Cape.
The department had also rejected applications for environmental authorisation for the other Karpowership-SA projects, namely at the Ports of Ngqura and Richards Bay.
Karpowership is a Turkish company seeking to provide South Africa with around 1,200 megawatts of power via ship-mounted power plants at the Ports Ngqura in Nelson Mandela Bay, as well as the Ports of Saldanha Bay and Richards Bay.
In a statement on Friday, the Ministry said the application for the project was withdrawn by the Environmental Assessment Practitioner, while the third application has been suspended pending the outcome of an investigation into the environmental processes.
Department spokesperson Albi Modise said two decisions in relation to the Karpowership-SA projects proposed for the Ports of Ngqura and Saldanha Bay, and the acknowledgment of the withdrawal of the report for the Port of Richards Bay, were made by the Competent Authority on 7 March.
The Green Connection's Liz McDaid said the non-profit organisation was happy to hear the news.
“We are hopeful that we can now put the whole Karpowership episode behind us so that we can focus on bringing affordable and appropriate energy onto the grid to address the loadshedding issue,” she said.
In January, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe highlighted the controversial proposed Karpowership deal as one of four interventions he believed could ease the country’s loadshedding crisis.
Karpowerships are basically floating power plants which, if greenlit, would be anchored around for 20 years at the three ports in South Africa.
Mantashe said when the department initially approved the deal “we were attacked left right and centre”, even though he said the project was working in other countries such as Ghana, Gabon, Cote d’Iviore and Brazil.
“Some said its expensive and we proved them wrong,” Mantashe said at the time.
The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) had also been against Karpowerships and said it would cost South Africa billions of rands.
The Turkish company, which won the tender to supply South Africa with electricity in 2021, had been mired in controversy, including allegations of corruption and what its floating power plants could have on the environment and small-scale fishing.
