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This Judgment was handed down electronically by circulation to the parties’ and or parties’ representatives by email and by being uploaded to CaseLines. The date and time for the hand down is deemed on 5 December 2022.

1.            This is an interlocutory application to compel compliance with rule 53(1)(b) of the uniform rules of court and thus for the production of a complete record.

2.            Unhappy with the decision relating to the provision of ‘new coal-fired power’, a group of applicants instituted proceedings against the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa, the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment and the President of the Republic of South Africa to set aside certain decisions ‘to the extent that they make provision for 1500MW of ‘new coal-fired power’.

3.            The first two applicants are registered non-profit companies who, broadly speaking have the interests of the environment at heart. The third applicant is a trust which operates, it states, as a non-profit environmental justice service and developmental organisation.

4.            The application was launched in November 2021. The Notice of Motion, where relevant for the purposes of this judgment, reads as follows:

‘1.      The following decisions (‘the impugned decisions’) are declared to be inconsistent with the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (‘Constitution’), unlawful and invalid:

1.1       The determination published by the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy (‘Minister’) on 25 September 2020 as GN1015 in Government Gazette No. 43734, to the extent that this includes provision for 1500MW of new coal-fired power.

1.2       The concurrence published by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (‘NERSA’) on or about 10 September 2020, to the extent that this supported the Minister’s determination in respect of 1500MW of new coal-fired power.

1.3       The Integrated Resource Plan 2019, published on 18 October 2019 as GN1360/2019 in Government Gazette 42784, to the extent that it makes provision for 1500MW of new coal-fired power.

2.         The impugned decisions are set aside to the extent that they make provision for 1500MW of new coal-fired power.

3.         To the extent necessary, the applicants’ delay in bringing the review application in terms of the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act 3 of 2000 (‘PAJA’), alternatively the constitutional principle of legality, is condoned and/or the 180 day time period under PAJA is extended so as to terminate one day after the institution of this application’.