The Gulf Time Newspaper One of the finest business newspapers in the UAE brought to you by our professional writers and editors.
Bloomberg
South Africa’s government is being sued for failing to crack down on some of the world’s worst air pollution emitted by power plants operated by Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. and refineries owned by Sasol Ltd.
The case was filed in the Pretoria High Court by groundWork, an environmental-rights organisation, and the Vukani Environmental Justice Movement in Action, according to a statement sent by their lawyers, the Centre for Environmental Rights. Eskom and Sasol didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. Albi Modise, a spokesman for South Africa’s Department of Environmental Affairs, said it may comment later.
The so-called Highveld Priority Area, which includes much of Mpumalanga province and part of Gauteng, is the site of 12 coal-fired Eskom power plants, a Sasol oil refinery and coal-to-fuel plant owned by the company. It’s also where almost all of South Africa’s coal is mined. A Greenpeace study for the third quarter of 2018 showed that Mpumalanga had the worst nitrogen dioxide emissions from power plants of any area in the world. “The environmental justice groups are asking the court to declare the current levels of air pollution on the Highveld a violation of people’s constitutional rights, and to force government to take meaningful action,†the groups said in the statement.