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South Africa : Cabinet approves start of nuclear procurement programme
Publish Date : 15-Dec-2015
Cabinet has effectively allowed the tender process to get underway, by approving the start of the nuclear procurement programme.
The Department of Energy will be well within its rights to invite bids to provide South Africa with 9,6GW of nuclear power in the absence of a cost-benefit analysis being conducted.
This is effectively what the Cabinet approved recently at a meeting held just hours before ex-Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene's unceremonious axing – a point Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe failed to cite at a Cabinet media debriefing on Friday.
The decision would allow nuclear suppliers to submit bids that include pricing and funding models and the move shows a strong government intent.
Nene has been openly against the nuclear build programme earlier going on the record to say that South Africa couldn't afford the ambitious energy programme.
With the overnight re-appointment of ex-Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan – who has also earlier refused to approve funding – it raises the question of whether Gordhan will actually have any true authority over the financial issues of the deal.
SA Institute for Race Relations Chief Economist Ian Cruickshanks says answers to that question will unfold in the next few weeks, but for now he says Gordhan has been propelled into a pretty strong position.
Cruickshanks, asked, "With Jacob Zuma's backtracking, he’s put the new finance minister in an untouchable position because if the finance minister says we haven’t got the money, what is he going to do?."
"Hopefully he's received a few words about what the implications are. Gordhan has been put into something close to an untouchable position. They can ask, but it doesn’t mean they're going to follow up and sign on the dotted line. His re-appointment has opened up a second centre of power within the ANC."
