An additional 674 human beings are projected to die if the Kusile bypass is operational until the end of March 2025. The deaths are attributed to an increased risk of stroke, ischemic heart disease, lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lower respiratory infections.

"Unevenness is a defining feature of pollution... Unevenness is not only a description of pollution and its harms, not only a side effect, and not remotely an accident: unevenness is an accomplishment of pollution. It is its goal." Max Liboiron, Pollution is Colonialism, 2021.

It is a little over 15 months since the high court in Pretoria confirmed in a judgment that the poor air quality over much of the Mpumalanga Highveld is a breach of residents' constitutional right to an environment that is not harmful to their health and well-being.

This ruling in the so-called Deadly Air case brought a glimmer of hope to communities that have for decades been treated as sacrifice zones for the nation's reliance on coal-fired electricity.

Instead of things getting better, they're about to get worse. The air is about to get even deadlier as Eskom prepares to bypass the sulphur dioxide (SO2) abatement equipment at its beleaguered Kusile plant.

Licence to kill

On 5 June 2023, the National Air Quality Officer (NAQO) granted Eskom's application to postpone compliance with the Minimum Emissions Standards for deadly pollutants. Eskom claims that it needs to bypass the flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) equipment at generation...