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South Africa High Court ruling spells end

for Khanyisa coal power plant

SOUTH AFRICA THE High Court in Pretoria has ruled that the conditions of its environmental authorisation,
environmental approval for the 600-MW Kha- and that its authorisation had lapsed in Octo-
nyisa coal-fired power station has expired. ber 2018. The Department of Forestry, Fisheries
The ruling means that the 600-MW plant, and Environment (DFFE) agreed that Khany-
which is being proposed by the Saudi Arabian isa’s environmental authorisation had lapsed.
company ACWA Power, now has little chance of ACWA, however, persisted with its position that
moving forward, and is a victory for concerted its authorisation was still valid, but did not file
efforts by environmental NGOs to have the pro- answering papers in the litigation to address this.
ject scrapped. The matter therefore proceeded before the judge
The ruling was welcomed by groundWork, on an unopposed basis.
an environmental justice group, which launched ACWA Power’s Khanyisa coal plant was
legal action in 2017 against the plant. appointed as one of two preferred bidders
Initially groundWork launched legal action under South Africa’s first bid window for the
seeking to set aside the environmental approval Coal Baseload Independent Power Producer
for the plant on the grounds that climate change Procurement Programme under a 2012 Minis-
impacts had not been properly assessed. terial Determination that called for 2,500 MW
It was later discovered the environmen- of baseload coal. The other appointed preferred
tal authorisation for the Khanyisa project had bidder, Thabametsi, withdrew its preferred bid-
lapsed in October 2018. der appointment in late 2020, and had its envi-
“The high levels of toxic air in the Mpuma- ronmental authorisation set aside by the Pretoria
langa Highveld are a scourge that impact people’s High Court in December 2020.
health on a daily basis. Had Khanyisa been able This is just the latest in a list of legal decisions
to proceed, it would have exacerbated the already that have suspended environmental approvals
toxic air pollution in the Highveld, impacted for coal-fired power plants.
negatively on the people’s health and their lives Approval for the 1,200-MW Thabametsi
in the surrounding communities and further plant was set aside in November 2020 by a High
exposed school kids in the nearby Landau school Court judge due to the Minister of Environmen-
to dangerous level of toxic emissions from the tal Affairs’ failure to take into account the cli-
plant and ash. We simply can’t have more coal mate change impacts of this proposed coal-fired
plants in the Highveld,” said Thomas Mnguni, power station.
campaigner at groundWork. The country’s economy remains heavily
In July 2020 the Water Tribunal set aside the dependent on coal for 70% of its power gener-
water-use licence for the plant over its failure to ation. South Africa currently has 18 coal-fired
conduct adequate public consultation. Without power plants, while proposed new coal mines
a water licence and environmental authorisation are set to supply 6.3mn tonnes per year (tpy) to
construction cannot proceed. existing coal power stations in Mpumalanga: the
The case litigation followed the 2017 land- 2,352-MW Arnot power station and 3,600-MW
mark Thabametsi court judgment, which set Matla power station.
a precedent confirming that climate change The country’s coal reserves are projected to
impacts must be assessed and considered as part last for the next 50 years. South Africa has 30
of the legally required environmental impact proposed coal mines with a projected output of
assessment (EIA) process. 129.5mn tpy.™
During the course of the litigation, it came to
light that Khanyisa had not complied with the

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