Load-shedding would be history if SA had signed Russian deal, says Jacob Zuma

Former president Jacob Zuma says a proposed nuclear deal with Russia, which emerged as a factor behind the firing of  two finance ministers and market turmoil during his scandal-hit administration, would have prevented the country’s energy crisis.

The R1-trillion estimated cost of the programme — equivalent to about 60% of government expenditure in the 2018/2019  fiscal year — would not have crippled the economy, he insisted, contradicting experts who said that it was neither necessary nor affordable.

"We are going to pay trillions of rand because of the problems of energy," he told Business Day in an exclusive interview this week.

"But if we went for nuclear, we will be out of spending trillions for a shorter amount of time and we’ll make more trillions. So the truth is the opposite."

It is the first time Zuma has publicly acknowledged, confirming accounts by former finance ministers Nhlanhla Nene and Pravin Gordhan at the Zondo inquiry into state capture, that he was central in trying to push through the nuclear deal.

It was eventually scuppered in 2017 after the high court ruled that the intergovernmental agreements that would have followed it were unlawful, following a challenge by environmental activists.

Nene told the commission he was axed in 2015 after he refused to endorse the deal. Former Treasury director-general Lungisa Fuzile told the commission in February that the country would have been "in trouble" if Zuma had got his way.

But this is not how Zuma sees it. "The fact of the matter is nuclear could solve our problems, once and for all. Now we are in deep [trouble], we are therefore increasing the debt of the country with no hope to bring it down. That’s a problem."

SA is in the midst of severe power cuts that have crippled industry and threaten to play a central role in the election campaigns as opposition parties attempt to use load-shedding as evidence of the ANC’s incompetence. Eskom’s operation and financial crises, which have left it with a R420bn debt load it can not service through its revenue, have been blamed on wide-scale corruption during Zuma’s time in office.

Nene further maintained he was pressured by Zuma and then energy minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson to sign off on the deal, despite there being no information on the financial implications, funding model and risk mitigation strategies.

But Zuma insisted that the government had commissioned multiple studies that justified the nuclear programme.

He said that a deal with Russia’s Rosatom would have been in SA’s best interest.

"Some of the countries, when we were looking for this, I compared their offers. Their offers were very limited," he said, adding that he had "made very serious comparisons".

Neither he nor the ANC were bribed, he said. "I don’t know how many times people have said Zuma is corrupt. They have not produced a single cent of that nature. It’s just propaganda, clear propaganda."

SA’s current energy crisis, Zuma said, "is partly because we have been hesitating, for example, we blocked this one, which is clean energy that is in agreement with the global policy and approach of not polluting.

"Our delaying this is causing problems of how we handle the current energy crisis."

Ongoing debate about the potential privatisation of power utility Eskom, and the use of independent power producers "does not help", he said.

"It makes the problem remain in the same place."

Zuma said Russia proved that it was worthy of trust by its support for the ANC during the antiapartheid struggle.

"Russia carried the biggest load in supporting us. Russia looked after our health, they never charged us a penny. So we cannot, when we are

now free, forget about people who were our friends at the time of need."

He was adamant that Russia would not take harsh action against SA if it defaulted on repaying the funding for the nuclear power plants.

"They would not come for us. They would understand, we would have an agreement to work out another arrangement.

"Others will come for us, [they] will force us to go to some financial thing so that they suck our funds forever.

"We know they are trusted people. We know they will never sink us, they will lift us."