South Africa is particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 given its levels of poverty, unemployment, inequality, and vulnerable employment, as well as the prevalence of HIV and tuberculosis. An R500 billion economic and social support package was announced by the President as the government’s response to stimulate economic recovery hindered by the COVID-19 pandemic. The bulk of...
The South African electricity supply industry remains dominated by the state-owned and vertically integrated utility, Eskom. Coal is the major driver of the energy sector in the country. Although coal is the utility’s primary energy source in South Africa, the use of renewable sources for electricity generation has increased in the last few years. As...
After years of deliberation, South Africa introduced a carbon pricing system in June 2019. Climate change is one of the leading challenges facing human kind and the primary objective of the carbon tax is to minimize greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in a sustainable, cost effective and affordable manner. Consequently, the President Cyril Ramaphosa signed into...
Earlier in the month of November 2019, the Constitutional Court refused a mining company’s final challenge of a 2018 High Court decision to set aside Ministerial approvals for a proposed coal mine in South Africa. The Constitutional Court had the final say on the approvals for a coal mine inside an Mpumalanga Protected Area and...
