A 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 drawn up a decade ago.
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 petrochemical plants.
A 2019 study, for the state-owned Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, showed more than 5,000 South Africans die annually in the 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 Creecy had a legal duty to make regulations that enforce the government plan for cleaner air, which was drawn up in 2012 but has yet to be implemented.
In her submission to the court, the minister had argued that while air pollution in the coal belt was indeed a problem, using the constitution to try to force the minister’s hand violated the separation of powers - an argument the court rejected.
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