The Department of Transport says there is no legal requirement for government to make public the details of its granting of Turkey’s Karpowership, access to the ports of Ngqura, Durban and Saldanha Bay for a period of 20 years.
Karpowership aims to generate power on its floating ships and distribute it through South Africa’ electricity grid.
Prolonged rolling blackouts continue to affect the country and the African National Congress (ANC) led government is looking for ways to resolve the issue.
Department spokesperson, Collen Msibi says, “There isn’t any legislative requirement for us to publish the approvals of this nature. So, we had to issue the statement because it was becoming some kind of controversial issue in terms of how it was being reported. So, we had to come out in the clear and say we haven’t done anything wrong.”
“The public must also understand, our approval doesn’t mean that the Karpowership must start operating tomorrow. They must still go through the ports authority, they must go through the environmental department to get their own approvals in terms of for instance the environmental assessments and so forth.”
Transport department confirms granting Karpowership mooring rights:
