Karpowership SA’s plans to moor in the Saldanha Bay has had another setback with Barbara Creecy, Minister of Forestry and Fisheries and Environmental Affairs, suspending the company’s application.
Creecy said the department is investigating the company’s Saldanha application after complaints from The Green Connection alleging suspected non-compliance with number 13 of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Regulations by the appointed Environmental Assessment Practitioner (EAP).
“As a result, the application has been suspended by the competent authority so the veracity of the allegations can be probed. Letters have been issued to the EAP for Karpowership SA and to The Green Connection. The decision on this application will be based on the outcome of the investigation.”
The Green Connection, a civil society organisation, is one of a handful opponents of the power project, which is set to generate electricity from natural gas to be evacuated through transmission lines to substations linking to the national grid.
While Karpowership maintains the 320 MW project will help alleviate the ongoing load shedding, opponents of the project believe the negative environmental impact of the planned project is too high a risk.
Green Connection’s complaint claims the necessary public participation for the authorisation was done only by engaging with members of the aquaculture and commercial fisheries sectors, with no comment or concern expressed from the small-scale fisheries sector.
“The people who signed the attendance register were not small-scale fishers, as defined by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) in terms of the Marine Living Resources Act of 2014 and Regulations on SSF of 2016,” explained Neville van Rooy, Community Outreach Coordinator of The Green Connection.
“They therefore were not in a position to provide accurate information to the consultants on small-scale fisheries and fisher livelihoods.”
In response to Creecy’s decision and the organisation’s claims, Karpowership SA said it is disappointed with developments.
“We remain fully prepared to work alongside the DFFE and relevant authorities to find a solution beneficial to all involved, but most of all, one which benefits the South African people,” the company said in a statement.
The company said it “actively sought” to engage with The Green Connection last December – to highlight any third party that may inadvertently have been left out of its extensive engagement with local communities.
“Unfortunately, Green Connection did not extend the same courtesy to us,” Karpowership SA now claimed.
It maintained that throughout the three-year process it had been subjected to multiple unfounded allegations about its proposed gas-to-power projects in Saldanha Bay, Richards Bay and the Port of Ngqura (Coega).
Creecy also announced that Karpowership SA’s application for environmental authorisation for the project in Coega has been refused.
According to the department concerns previously raised about the 540 MW floating power facility were not addressed in the final Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report.
It seems concerns about the location of the plant were also raised by Transnet National Port Authorities.
Regarding the Richard’s Bay project the department received a letter to withdraw the final EIA report dated 6 January.
“The withdrawal is based on an urgent application by the EAP for condonation to comply with regulatory time frames in terms of Section 47C of the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA) submitted to minister Creecy on 24 February 2023,” a statement from the department explained. “This application is currently under consideration.”
Karpowership SA says it is now in the process of “working to resolve the error in question, and we have sought a brief extension from the minister to do so.”
In terms of the Saldanha Bay project the department will now investigate The Green Connection allegations with the outcome to be given to the relevant stakeholders “in due course”.
