An appeal by the government against a High Court ruling that it must act against air pollution caused by Eskom and Sasol will be heard today, says a Moneyweb report.

The so-called ‘Deadly Air' case’ brought to court in 2019 by groundWork, an environmental-rights organisation, 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.

In March last year, Gauteng High Court Judge Colleen Collis said Environmental minister Barbara Creecy 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. 

The Minister is arguing that her powers are being usurped.

‘It is unlawful to fetter the Minister’s discretion,’ Creecy’s lawyers said in court documents. ‘The order breaches the separation of powers.’

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 SA’s greenhouse gases.

The country is the 14th biggest source of the climate-warning emissions, according to Global Carbon Atlas.

Full Moneyweb report