Sub-Saharan Africa
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South Africa Ready to Legally Fight Environmental Activists Over Ship-Mounted Power Plants

CC BY 2.0 / Adamina / View from the Carlton Centre, Africa's tallest buildingView from the Carlton Centre, Africa's tallest building
View from the Carlton Centre, Africa's tallest building - Sputnik Africa, 1920, 21.05.2023
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South Africa, one of the continent’s most developed nations, is currently facing a severe electricity crisis that threatens to undermine both its economy and social stability. To deal with the situation, the government declared a "national disaster" from February to April, took on over 60% of Eskom's debt, and created a ministry for electricity.
The South African government is prepared to defend its decision to address the country's electricity shortage through the use of ship-mounted power plants in any legal action brought by environmental organizations, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe told the local Sunday Times newspaper.
"Environmentalists veto every development they don't like," Mantashe said. "People can take us to court as many times as they can, we will continue with gas and petroleum exploration."
South Africa has been grappling with daily power outages, known as load shedding, due to the inability of the country's state-owned power utility, Eskom, to meet the nation's electricity demand, resulting in major impediments to the country's economic growth and widespread public outrage.
The government has been under pressure to find a solution, particularly as Eskom has warned that it will only be able to supply electricity for half the day in the winter of 2023.
To address the problem, the Turkish company Karpowership has been granted permission to dock its power ships at three South African ports in an attempt to solve the issue of prolonged electricity outages.

Although plans to work with Karpowership have been discussed for years, legal and environmental challenges have caused significant delays. Environmental activists oppose the 20-year contracts awarded to winning bidders in the emergency power tender, saying it would lock the country into using fossil fuels for an extended period of time.

The country's Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana had previously suggested that Energy Minister Mantashe be given the authority to acquire new capacity without restriction.
In this photo taken Monday, Nov. 21, 2011, the cooling towers at Eskom's coal-powered Lethabo power station are seen near Sasolburg, South Africa. - Sputnik Africa, 1920, 20.05.2023
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In line with this, Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said the government is committed to addressing load shedding by implementing the Energy Action Plan announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in July 2022. The action plan focuses on improving the energy availability factor, or plant performance, of coal-fired power stations. It also aims to attract private sector investment in the energy sector by raising the approval threshold for embedded generation projects.
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