The State will not prosecute Karpowership's environmental consultants because the case hinges on a single witness, according to advocate Sibongile Mzinyathi, the director of public prosecutions in Pretoria.
The case was opened in May 2021 by the Environmental Management Inspectorate, aka the Green Scorpions, who alleged that Karpowership’s consultants misled a chief director in the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) to obtain an exemption from South Africa’s strict enviro.
Photo: Karpowership
The Turkish-led Karpowership consortium is weeks away from a deadline to finalise its 20-year supply deal with Eskom, but now faces multiple legal hurdles.
The Green Scorpions are investigating whether the former head of SANParks provided misleading information to secure an emergency permit on Karpowership s behalf.
The environment department has until 25 June to adjudicate Karpowership s application for environmental authorisation – and it may depend on what the investigators find.
The Green Scorpions are investigating whether Karpowership SA or its environmental consultants provided misleading information to secure an emergency exemption from stringent provisions of the National Environmental Management Act (Nema).
The Environmental Management Inspectorate – known as the Green Scorpions – is tasked with investigating environmental crimes.
The investigation could result in criminal charges, but could also torpedo Karpowership’s environmental authorisations, which it needs for its mammoth R225-billion deal with Eskom to go ahead.
In March, the Turkish-led consortium was selected as a preferred bidder to provide 1,220MW of emergency power under the Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (RMI4P). The electricity will come from gas-fired powerships which are intended to be moored in the ports of Richards Bay, Coega and Saldanha.
The investigation stems from an extraordinary authorisation in June 2020 – just before the tender was announced – by a top official in the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE).
Hantie Plomp, the South African environmental consultant who helped Turkish company Karpowership procure a “Covid-19 exemption” permit for its controversial gas powerships plan, is facing disciplinary charges for alleged professional misconduct.
Before establishing her environmental consultancy business, Triplo4 Sustainable Solutions, Hantie Plomp worked as an environmental manager for AngloGold Ashanti. She studied analytical chemistry at Pretoria Technikon and later graduated with a Masters degree (Cum Laude) in Environmental Management from the University of the Free State. (Photo: riverhorsevalley.co.za)
The exemption permit would have allowed the company to bypass a mandatory environmental impact assessment (EIA) and public participation process, based on the claim that gas-burning Turkish powerships would somehow help to save lives at the height of the Covid pandemic and electricity crisis.