Energy Minister David Mahlobo has contradicted Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba on nuclear procurement, telling the energy committee in Parliament on Tuesday that the country needs nuclear power.
Mahlobo also insisted that the recent High Court in Cape Town judgment setting aside the government’s determination on nuclear did not prohibit the state from proceeding with its nuclear plans.
The Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute has applied to the High Court in Johannesburg to have the nuclear build plans halted.
Mahlobo’s remarks flew in the face of Gigaba’s statements that the country could not afford to procure nuclear.
"There is no nuclear deal on the table. But that does not mean that we will not have a nuclear deal in the future.
"The issue we are dealing with is that there is a tender and renewables are currently having R100bn allocated for them," the energy minister said.
During a two-hour presentation, Mahlobo said that nuclear remained a part of SA’s future as far as government policy was concerned, with the latest projections being that the portion of energy produced by nuclear could grow from 5% to 20%.
The High Court in Cape Town ruled earlier in 2017 that a nuclear ministerial determination was invalid as the National Energy Regulator did not undertake the hearings.
Members of the committee threw a barrage of questions his way after the presentation.
Mahlobo said that nuclear energy was a significant part of the government’s energy and developmental plans for the future and that critics of SA’s latest efforts to develop nuclear energy could not wish it away.
The Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) "for 2010-30 talks about 9.6GW and that might have to be revised downward. We won’t speak about the Western Cape High Court. It never made a decision that said we can’t do nuclear power generation. It spoke to the specific process steps, which were not taken according to the law," said Mahlobo.
"Scientists have a problem in the sense that they want to speak to themselves. Nobody wants to speak to people. I am not going to speak about R1-trillion. It is not my figure. The cost of energy should be affordable to the poorest but promote growth as well as boost investor confidence."
Gordon Mackay, committee member for the DA, said the energy minister’s presentation was unclear on how he hoped to fund nuclear when Gigaba said during his medium-term budget policy statement that SA could not afford it.
Mahlobo rebuffed that by saying the implementation of nuclear is part of cabinet resolutions dating back to 2015.
Liziwe McDaid, of the Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute, said Mahlobo’s presentation was lacking in substance.
"As civil society, we came to hear when the IRP was to be released and how decisions around nuclear procurement were to go forward. Instead we got generalities about energy choices and the underlying commitment to nuclear, it seems, no matter what. Tomorrow [Wednesday] is the deadline for the minister’s lawyers to respond to our court papers. We await their response."
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