Electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramakgopa. (Theana Breugem/Foto24/Gallo Images)
The presidency has this week approached its legal counsel to uphold the decision to proceed with procuring 2 500 megawatts of nuclear energy, Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa told the Mail & Guardian.
In December, Ramokgopa announced that the department of mineral resources and energy has plans to release a request for proposals to acquire 2 500MW of nuclear power in March 2024.
Democratic Alliance MP Kevin Mileham filed court papers at the Gauteng high court last week arguing that the push to procure the nuclear energy was procedurally unfair, and did not permit public comment before issuing the determination.
Mileham added that the determination — first published and signed by the minister of mineral resources and energy, Gwede Mantashe in 2020 — had since become invalid by the time Ramokgopa took the initial legal step towards procuring nuclear energy in January.
He said the DA was seeking a court to set aside the nuclear procurement plan.
In January, Ramokgopa issued a notice under the Electricity Regulation Act to pursue 2 500MW of nuclear power.
The procurement of nuclear energy forms part of the country’s Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), which sets out the path of the country’s energy future, as a solution to power shortages.
On Wednesday, the executive director at Southern African Faith Communities Environment Institute, Francesca de Gasparis, said in a statement the SAFCEI is also considering taking the determination on judicial review for flawed public consultation processes.
“Nersa’s [National Energy Regulator of South Africa] repeated refusal to allow SAFCEI and Earthlife Africa Johannesburg (and the public) to have sight of and comment on further submissions, made by the Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe, also violated the requirements of procedural fairness and rationality,” De Gasparis said in a joint statement with Earthlife Africa.
Earthlife Africa director Makoma Lekalakala said they had expected the government to learn from past mistakes and prioritise transparency and public engagements after the failed procurement of the 9 600MW nuclear fleet proposed during former president Jacob Zuma’s tenure.
In 2017, Earthlife Africa and the SAFCEI won a case against the government over procedural issues and the 9 600MW never saw the light of day.
Despite these legal victories, Mantashe has criticised the nonprofits for being “anti-industrial” and impeding South Africa’s energy sovereignty.
Speaking at a media briefing at the Africa Energy Indaba last week, Mantashe warned that persistent resistance to nuclear, oil and gas exploration threatened South Africa’s energy security.
“As an example, Shell wanted to explore gas in South Africa, the groups demonstrated, Shell left to do the same exploration in Namibia and they were part of the oil and gas discovery in Namibia, and here we have not touched anything. That is the difference of a positive view of development,” he said.
“Italian oil giant Eni was doing exploration on the coast of KZN [KwaZulu-Natal]. We took them to court 47 times, they left us and went to Ivory Coast and discovered oil in huge quantities. Today we are importing part of our fuel and oil from Ivory Coast that was discovered by a company that first approached us.”