Legal Articles and Guides

Four environmental and human rights organisations – supported by environmental law firm, Cullinan & Associates – have filed an urgent interim interdict against Shell in the Eastern Cape High Court (Makhanda) to prevent the fossil fuel company from commencing seismic testing along the ecologically diverse and sensitive marine environment of the Wild Coast.

The Treasury could save billions on SA’s interest bill and create the fiscal space to solve Eskom’s debt problem if it brokers a climate finance deal with international funders in exchange for an accelerated retirement of coal-powered power stations, says a new briefing note by think-tank Meridian Economics.

Mozambique’s ex-Finance Minister Manuel Chang will have to spend at least a few more weeks in a South African prison. On Friday, the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) effectively interdicted Justice Minister Ronald Lamola from sending Chang home until the court had reviewed Lamola’s decision to extradite him to Mozambique.

A Cape Town civic organisation says former Minister of Water & Sanitation Lindiwe Sisulu has ‘usurped’ the powers of the water tribunal by uplifting the suspension of a water use licence issued to the developers of the multibillion-rand redevelopment of the River Club in Observatory, Cape Town.

The Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) yesterday declared that Eskom's award of a tender to Senta Square to perform control and instrumentation maintenance at Camden Power Station in Mpumalanga between 1 March 2019 and 28 February 2022 was unlawful.

Private energy generators have been given free rein to develop their own power to ‘reduce the burden’ on an ailing Eskom, which has subjected the country to debilitating rolling blackouts for more than a decade.

SA’s fourth largest bank by assets, Absa, says it will tread cautiously in evaluating any proposals to fund Turkish company Karpowership, which was recently awarded the lion’s share of the emergency power procurement contract – because of the allegations of irregularities surrounding the tender.

A fight over a remote 4x4 track in the Western Cape mountains has escalated into a legal brawl involving lawyers, environmental groups and government investigators.

Algoa Bay oyster farmer Zwembesi Farms is suing the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality for R34m for loss of income after its oysters were polluted by sewage that, the company alleges, was negligently discharged by the metro, says a report in The Herald.

Minister of Mineral Resources & Energy Gwede Mantashe has announced the winning bidders (listed in the report online) for emergency power procurement that may generate about R45bn in private sector investment and ease the chronic power shortages.

The SA Human Rights Commission has given various government stakeholders 60 days to respond after it ruled that the continued flow of raw sewage into the Vaal River, as well as homes and public areas in the Emfuleni local municipality, was a violation of human rights, reports News24.

The Msunduzi Municipality has hit back at the Human Rights Commission (HRC) for bringing a ‘flawed’ High Court case against it over the state of the city’s New England landfill site.

Environmental activists have warned that the government’s move to build additional nuclear electricity generation capacity is ‘bad for democracy’, will jeopardise citizens’ health, and create a burden of nuclear waste for future generations.

The City of Cape Town has announced that it will be opposing a court application to have its decision to relocate Kommetjie baboon Kataza set aside.

It is back to the drawing board for a giant new wind farm project on the West Coast, following an appeal decision by Environment Minister Barbara Creecy.