Outa: Karpowership deal not good for SA economy
The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) says it’s disappointed that the government insists on pushing ahead with the Karpowership deal.
The Turkish gas-to-power ships have been given access to dock in Durban, Ngqura in the Eastern Cape and Saldanha Bay.
The Department of Transport says access for a period of 20 years was approved by the minister in February, as the country looks to ease the load shedding crisis.
But Outa’s Stefanie Fick says the Karpowership deal will leave a R500 billion hole in the country’s budget.
“As the organisation, we are in court challenging (national energy regulator) Nersa for giving three ships distribution or generation licences before they even received their environmental assessment and the whole financial closure. This Karpowership deal is for the next 20 years.
“If they come to South Africa will be a disaster. It is not good for the environment, and it will not create more jobs.”
Fick says it is important for South Africa to look for alternative sources of electricity.
“It is extremely important that we look at alternative energy sources for South Africa, besides the Karpowership deal. This energy emergency was created by the government. If they open up the grid and procure more renewable energy, we would probably not be sitting with this problem.”
Outa is also involved in a court battle with Nersa over licences granted to the Turkish company, which will use the power ships to add electricity to the grid.
It wants to force the regulator to provide a complete record of its decisions to award generation licences to the company.
Nersa is opposing the bid to overturn the decision to grant Karpowership licences.
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