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An appeal by South Africa’s government on a High Court ruling that it act against air pollution caused by Eskom and Sasol will be heard on Monday.
The so-called Deadly Air case, brought to court in 2019 by groundWork, an environmental-rights organization, and Vukani Environmental Justice Movement in Action was seen as a key test of the government’s resolve to deal with some of the world’s worst air pollution.
High Court Judge Colleen Collis in March last year said that Barbara Creecy, the environment minister, had a legal obligation to prescribe rules to implement and enforce anti-pollution regulations and had unreasonably delayed in doing so.
Collis ordered the matter to be addressed within 12 months and that the new rules provide for penalties for non-compliance and adequate monitoring, ruling that the government had breached its citizens’ constitutional rights.
In opposition to the ruling, the minister is arguing that her powers are being abused.
“It is unlawful to fetter the minister’s discretion,” Creecy’s lawyers said in court documents. “The order breaches the separation of powers.”
The Highveld Priority Area, is a key industrial zone which includes much of northeastern Mpumalanga province and part of the central Gauteng region. It’s the site of most of Eskom’s fleet of 14 coal-fired power plants and a petrochemical complex owned by Sasol.
A Greenpeace study conducted in 2018 showed Mpumalanga had the worst nitrogen-dioxide emissions from power plants of any area globally.
Together Eskom and Sasol emit more than half of South Africa’s greenhouse gases. The country is the 14th biggest source of the climate-warning emissions, according to Global Carbon Atlas. Eskom produces more than 80% of South Africa’s power from coal-fired plants.
The plants also emit sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, mercury and fine particulate matter that cause illnesses ranging from asthma to lung cancer and contribute to still births, strokes and heart attacks.
Still, South Africa is also suffering its worst ever power outages, with rotational blackouts of sometimes more than 10 hours a day. Tougher pollution regulations could curb electricity generation.
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