A plan to station floating power-generation ships in three SA ports which was championed by former Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe, will no longer go ahead, according to TechCentral.

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) yesterday won a case in the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) in which the licences for Turkey’s Karpowership to operate the ships were declared invalid and overturned.

Outa said this was the end of government attempts to contract the Karpowerships: ‘The court case took three years, but Outa believes it was worth it.’

Government had sought to contract with Karpowership during the load shedding crisis in 2020 and 2021 through its risk mitigation independent power producer procurement programme.

Licences were issued by the National Energy Regulator of SA and were a step in the government’s plan to sign 20-year deals with the floating power stations as ‘emergency’ electricity.

‘The deals were expected to have cost about R200bn over 20 years, an amount that would have been added to the price of electricity,’ Outa said.

‘The Karpowership deals are now absolutely dead. They will never be loaded onto your electricity bill,’ said Outa executive director Stefanie Fick.

‘This ruling is a powerful affirmation that decisions involving billions in public funds must comply with the law. We challenged this process because the public deserves transparency, proper oversight and value for money, none of which was present in this licensing saga.’

Karpowership could not be reached for comment. 

‘As part of the settlement agreement, Nersa agreed to withdraw its opposition to Outa’s review application, and the court formally set aside the impugned licences,’ Outa said. 

‘The court ordered Nersa to pay the costs of the application on a party-and-party scale, including fees for two counsel.’

Full TechCentral report