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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).