Earthlife appeals against Eskom ruling
Environmental lobby group Earthlife Africa has filed papers appealing against a Johannesburg High Court ruling that power utility Eskoms minutes detailing the economic implications of a proposed nuclear power plant remain secret, says a Business Day report.
Earthlife Africa spokesperson Maya Aberman is quoted as saying that the organisation had filed an application for access to Eskom board minutes related to the development of the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor project, in a bid to find out why Eskom had failed to give detailed information on the health and economic impact of the project. According to a FIN24 report, Aberman said in any corporate setting, investors needed to be provided with all the facts before capital expenditure was justified. So too, in ELA\'s opinion, do the tax-payers of SA have a right to information before R14bn of public money is spent on PBMR developments. Aberman added the fact that costs were awarded, in December 2005, against the Earthlife was also a cause of concern. It is important to ELA that small, community-based organisations do not fear reprisals as a result of exercising their constitutional rights through the use of the Access to Information Act. Full report on the FIN24 site Full Business Day report