Author: Liezl Human

A new report by shareholder activist organisation Just Share has shown that South Africa’s largest polluters pay so little carbon tax that it barely has any impact on their greenhouse gas emissions. This, the report says, has in turn led to a failure to lower greenhouse gas emissions by big South African polluters. South Africa ranks among the top 15 countries with the highest emissions, according to the International Energy Agency. Most of these emissions are from the fossil fuel industry. Climate change policy has been on the government’s agenda since the early 2000s, with the National Climate Change Response…

More than 2,600 awaiting-trial detainees are stuck in overcrowded South African prisons because they cannot afford to pay bail of less than R1,000. Many more cannot afford low bail amounts of more than R1,000. The Bail Fund working group, led by the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services (JICS) and with the support of the Bertha Centre, will soon launch a small pilot project to help these detainees who have been granted bail but who cannot afford to pay it. During a working group meeting on Thursday, JICS inspecting judge Edwin Cameron said the Bail Fund would address the “injustice of…

Sasol is on the list of 57 companies in the world which are responsible for 80% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, according to a recent report. The “Carbon Majors” report is a database of historic production data from more than 100 of the biggest oil, gas, coal, and cement producers in the world. Sasol has said that it is committed to achieving a 30% reduction in emissions by 2030 and net zero by 2050. But shareholder activist group JustShare has warned that the company will not be able to reach net zero without “real, urgent accountability”. Sasol is on…