Saldanha Bay residents voice support for Karpowership during public meeting

At a public meeting held in Saldanha Bay as part of Karpowership’s regulatory requirements, many residents expressed their backing for the controversial electricity-generation deal, despite environmental organisations opposing the “flawed” deal.

Karpowership runs power ships (literally a ship that produces power) that use fossil fuels to generate electricity.

“We support this project,” said Samuel Moorkroof, who was speaking on behalf of the West Coast Black Business Alliance. Moorkroof said that some media reports have claimed that people of Saldanha Bay were wholly opposed to the deal, but that this wasn’t true. He said many people in Saldanha supported the Karpowership project.

GroundUp sat in on the public meeting held in Saldanha Multipurpose Centre on 21 November. About 50 people, including representatives of local business and fishing organisations, attended the meeting and most showed support for the Karpowership deal. One man at the meeting said that he was not in support of the deal.

In March 2021, three Karpowerships, to be based in Saldanha Bay, Coega, and Richards Bay, were listed among eight preferred bidders as part of the Risk Mitigation IPP Procurement Programme (RMIPPPP) of the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) in a 20-year deal worth over R200-billion. In June last year, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) refused Karpowership initial environmental impact assessments (EIAs).

Investigations by amaBhungane in May last year suggested that the tender process was rigged in Karpowership’s favour, among other irregularities. In January this year, a court challenge by a competitor that sought to overturn Karpowership’s appointment was dismissed.

Many of the Saldanha residents that spoke in support of the deal noted that unemployment and poverty were widespread, and that the effects of rolling blackouts have exacerbated these problems.

Saldanha Bay is the Local Municipality with the highest unemployment rate in the West Coast District, despite being the biggest contributor to GDP, according to recent statistics.

Public meetings were also held in Richards Bay and Ngqura last week. It was Karpowership’s second attempt to hold public meetings, after the initial environmental impact assessments (EIAs) were refused by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) in June 2021. The DFFE found that there were “significant gaps and limitations” in the EIA, that proper public consultation didn’t take place, and that it lacked a necessary underwater noise impact study.

Karpowership redid the EIA process, appointing Triplo4 as the environmental consulting organisation, whose mandate included hosting the public meetings held last week.

The Green Connection, an environmental organisation, criticised the public meeting, claiming that Karpowership did not directly reach out to fishers in the area to arrange consultations at the most suitable times. The Green Connection did not attend the meeting.