The department of environmental affairs said Karpowership's environmental impact assessment application for Saldanha was deemed to have been withdrawn and the application was now considered 'closed'. But Karpowership has not thrown in the towel.

The national department of environmental affairs has ruled that Karpowership's latest application for environmental approval for two floating powerships in Saldanha Bay is "fatally flawed", suggesting that this project may not go ahead - but the company has not given up and is appealing against the decision.

While the Green Connection environmental justice group has welcomed the latest refusal as a sign that the Saldanha Bay power ship plan is now "closed", Karpowership attorney Adam Gunn immediately lodged an appeal, complaining that "a minor administrative oversight" by Karpowership's environmental consultants should not be allowed to derail a nationally strategic emergency power plan.

In a letter signed on 23 May, a senior official of the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environmental Affairs advised the Karpowership legal team that his department had refused to grant the company extra time to comply with the approvals process at Saldanha Bay.

Sabelo Malaza, the department's chief director for integrated environmental authorisations, noted that Karpowership wrote to Minister Barbara Creecy on 26 April to request more time to submit a generic Environmental Management Programme (a legal requirement in the approvals process).

However, Malaza said the department had decided to refuse the request based on its belief...