Page 8 - AfrElec Week 42 2021
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AfrElec POWERSHIPS AfrElec
Karpowership faces new
corruption allegations
SOUTH AFRICA FRESH corruption allegations have surfaced in claimed.
a tug of war over the question of how to provide For its part, Karpowership says DNG is
South Africa with emergency power, as state- inventing the allegations and delaying the emer-
owned Eskom struggles to generate enough gency power process because it lost the bid. It has
electricity to meet the country’s needs. also noted that the South African firm will have
Eskom has been trying to fill the gaps by to prove its allegations in court.
tendering contracts for 2,000 MW in emer- Meanwhile, DNG Energy made fresh corrup-
gency generating capacity. But Karpowership, tion allegations against Karpowership and a gov-
a Turkish company that owns a fleet of floating ernment official this week. In a supplementary
powerships, has accused a South African coun- affidavit to court papers, DNG alleges that busi-
try, DNG Power Holdings, of holding the con- nessmen who are now partnering with Karpow-
tracts “hostage” by lodging baseless claims of ership approached the firm’s CEO for a bribe.
corruption. Beyond the graft accusations, the deal has yet
Karpowership had won a government tender to won the approval of environmental author-
in March to provide the biggest portion of the ities in South Africa, who say that the environ-
emergency generating capacity. Eskom hoped mental toll of the deal may be too heavy. In June,
the award would help provide the country with the country’s Department of Forestry, Fisheries
a quick and cheap solution to country-wide elec- and the Environment denied environmental
tricity blackouts. permits for the three gas-to-power projects.
But DNG Energy, a South African company Then in September, the North Gauteng High
that was not chosen from the utility’s list of 11 Court agreed to postpone an appeal against the
preferred bidders, has raised questions about emergency tender.
whether the contract was awarded fairly. It has Any delays in finalising the contest for emer-
accused Karpowership of tender-fixing, saying gency generating capacity have the potential
that the Turkish group was approached by a gov- to prolong South Africa’s energy crisis. Power
ernment official with the terms of the contract shortages have already cost Africa’s largest indus-
long before it was auctioned off. The official did trial nation billions of rands in lost revenue due
this to ensure that the latter won the bid, it has to repeated electricity blackouts.
P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 42 21•October•2021
