Many Saldanha Bay residents are hoping the Karpowership deal goes ahead, and brings jobs to their community.

But their fate will almost certainly be decided in the courts, as government and NGO’s draw battle lines over the controversial proposal.

The Transport Department has approved access for a period of 20 years to the Turkish company to dock its power ships at three of the country’s harbours.

They would generate electricity from gas to help ease the country’s energy crisis.

But the Environment and Fisheries Ministry hasn’t approved the deal, largely because the company appears to have misrepresented the impact on the environment.

Green Connection, an environmental organization says there are other solutions to the country’s blackout crisis that would not be harmful to the environment.

And it won’t hesitate to go to court if it finds any irregularities in the proposals to proceed with the potentially very expensive Karpowership deal.

The NGO’s Neville van Rooy says government can find other ways of dealing with the emergency.

” There are alternatives to Karpowership and this isn’t the answer to our energy demand.  We believe that there are viable renewable opportunities in this country that should be harnessed and used, and should have been implemented way back already and could have prevented the scenario that we are having right now”