- The Green Connection expressed satisfaction over the announcement that the Karpowership deal is officially “dead in the water.
- South Africa’s Minister of Energy and Electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa made the announcement yesterday at a media briefing held at Lethabo power station.
- “The Karpowership projects are dead in the water. We previously announced the projects did not meet the deadline dates. The projects are buried and behind us,” said Ramokgopa
Strategic Lead at The Green Connection, Liziwe McDaid says, “We have long argued that signing the proposed 20-year ‘emergency’ contract would have resulted in even higher electricity prices than those currently proposed by Eskom. Imagine the impact, especially since South Africans have already endured many above-inflation price hikes over the past decade. And we cannot ignore the lessons from other African countries that bought into Karpowerships but had their electricity cut because they couldn’t afford to pay.”
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She adds that the reservations about these projects went beyond the financial costs. She says, “We were also deeply concerned about the environmental risks these floating kettles pose to marine ecosystems, and the potential ripple effect on the livelihoods of small-scale fishers who rely on a healthy ocean.”
“However, while we are pleased the deal is off, there are serious questions that remain. Why, if the Karpowership deal is truly off the table, is the government still opposing The Green Connection and OUTA’s court cases? Why are scarce state resources still being wasted on this? And why did the new Minister of Environment approve the Richards Bay Karpowership environmental impact assessment when the project isn’t moving forward?” says McDaid.
In the interest of transparency, The Green Connection insists that government must take accountability and publicly address these pressing questions.
Responding to a question on Karpowership from Chris Yelland at yesterdays media briefing, Ramokgopa said, “Now that Eskom’s plant performance has stabilised and significantly improved, with load shedding over for the last 200 days, is it not time for the DoEE and its IPP Office to officially call an end to the Karpowership emergency procurement for the next 20 years, and to also bring an end the wasteful and fruitless litigation currently in progress with OUTA and Green Connection”.
Chris Yelland is an energy analyst, consultant, electrical engineer, public speaker, writer and MD at EE Business Intelligence (Pty) Ltd. Follow Chris on X – @chrisyelland
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
