Environment minister Barbara Creecy has approved a countrywide network of gas pipelines, prompting criticism that the government's commitment to fighting climate change is hot air.
The formal map of strategic gas corridors, published last month in the Government Gazette, follows an upsurge in offshore and onshore gas exploration that could lead to a foreign investment and jobs boom.
But environmental groups said the corridors were finalised without proper public participation or due concern for sensitive sites. Some opposition voices claim the fast-tracking of the gas industry is driven by a politically connected elite with vested interests in fossil fuels.
In her February 26 notification, Creecy also outlined strategic development areas for large-scale wind and solar photovoltaic energy facilities and transmission lines and announced a streamlining of the approval process for renewable energy projects.
The new gas corridors are in addition to existing "development corridors", and the department of environment, forestry & fisheries said this week that "gas is recognised worldwide as an enabling fuel for a just transition".
"The issue of risks was considered and evaluated through the strategic environmental assessment that was undertaken to identify the transmission corridors."
The pipelines would be developed in nine phases, starting with corridors from Saldanha to Mossel Bay and to Ankerlig power station in Atlantis, and culminating in a corridor from Saldanha to Coega in the Eastern Cape.
Civil society stakeholders said their concerns - particularly over safety and expansion of the gas sector - had been ignored.
"Those promoting gas as a bridge to decarbonised energy, as part of a just transition, are close neighbours to climate denialists," said Patrick Bond from the University of the Western Cape school of government.
"This is a recipe for 'stranded assets', since methane associated with the massive fracking and offshore gas dangers in the Karoo, Drakensberg and Indian Ocean must never be imposed by our generation on our children and beyond. That would be the very definition of unsustainable development."
Avena Jacklin, of the environmental watchdog group groundWork, said the government appeared to want to "shortcut vital public consultation processes" on gas corridors, which could constitute grounds for a legal review.
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"Gas is touted as the potential 'transitionary' energy source to provide 'clean', 'reliable' and 'cheap' electricity while mitigating greenhouse gas emissions relative to the coal sector," she said.
"This false marketing and promotion of gas by corporates and energy ministries is inviting an array of deadly risks to countries of the South who will ultimately . bear the brunt of climate change impacts due to the increase in greenhouse gas emissions. Gas is by no means clean, cheap or reliable."
Desmond D'Sa, co-ordinator of the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance, said the government had already proved it was unable to look after its existing pipeline network, in particular the Transnet line linking Durban's refineries and Gauteng.
He said there had been numerous pipeline leaks and incidents over many years.
In a letter to Creecy last year D'Sa detailed his concerns about threats to communities along pipeline corridors, reminding her of the 2001 explosion from a ruptured pipe in Tongaat.
"Once a pipeline is built, the landowners along the path of the pipeline, or next door to a compressor station, will have no choice but to accept living with the constant risk of accidents and explosions," the letter said.
"We demand that a proper health study be conducted; there also needs to be a risk assessment done and a proper and adequate disaster management plan that must include a contingency plan."
We demand that a proper health study be conducted; there also needs to be a risk assessment done and a proper and adequate disaster management plan that must include a contingency plan
— Excerpt from letter to Barbara Creecy
Critics of the new pipeline plan also point to the ballooning cost of the new Durban-Johannesburg multi-products pipeline, which was originally estimated at R6bn but ended up at R30bn.
But the department said development of a gas industry is in the country's best long-term interests.
"The presidential climate commission is advising government on a just transition that will leave no-one behind," it said in a statement.
"In terms of the Integrated Resource Plan a portion of the country's energy mix is to be generated from gas."
The environmental impacts of gas projects would be individually assessed. "The issues of risks and accidents at a site level will be considered through an environmental impact assessment process."
Alain Kerr, business development executive at the South African Oil & Gas Alliance, said the group supported the move to finalise corridors.
"We don't believe it has too much of an environmental impact. When they … planned the routes they obviously took into consideration people's land and flora and fauna.
"At the end of the day it is required for the country to move forward," Kerr said.
SA has large reserves of both shale gas reserves and coal bed methane. They have been overlooked in favour of coal, but this is being depleted.
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