SOUTH African court on Friday upheld a complaint by activists that poor air quality in the coal belt is a breach of constitutional rights, giving the environment minister a year to enforce a clean air plan.
South Africa’s coal belt, east of the capital Pretoria and main city Johannesburg is home to an estimated 3.6-million people, as well as a dozen Eskom coal-fired power stations and some Sasol petrochemicals plants.
Activists, scientists and doctors, as well as a United Nations human rights expert have argued that the epidemic of nasty respiratory diseases in the area is a direct result of high levels of air pollution.
In a 2019 report, for the state-owned Council for Scientific and Industrial Research showed more than 5 000 South Africans die annually in the nation’s coal belt because the government has failed to fully enforce its own air quality standards, and that a quarter of households there have children with asthma.
The High Court in the capital Pretoria said Environment Minister Barbara Creecy had a
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