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Cape Town - The South African government should explain the size of the Russian nuclear deal, why they have focused on Russia and what other alternatives could be looked at in future to offset this spend on nuclear, said independent political analyst Daniel Silke.
“There was no surprise in terms of government’s intention to go with nuclear power in a sense, but I think what’s surprising of course is firstly the extent of this particular deal … and [that] South Africa has chosen Russia as a strategic partner,” he told Fin24 in a telephonic interview.
See below for the full audio interview.
“There’s mistrust politically in South Africa between our politicians entering into very capital-intensive deals and in particular given the continued question marks surrounding President [Jacob] Zuma, [and] the Arms Deal spy tapes saga that is still very much in the news,” he said. “I think this also partially reflects South Africans’ skepticism for this type of deal.”
Zuma/Putin relationship
He said the issue was whether South Africa had engaged will all countries around nuclear energy, or whether the Brics partnership between Russia and South Africa had pushed them together.
“It seems that President Zuma increasingly also has a close relationship with [Russian President] Vladimir Putin and I think that this Brics partnership in particular could have been the spur in the sense to afford South Africa the opportunity to go with a Russian consortium.”
He cautioned that South Africans might not have been told the full story about the broader tender process involved and what other countries might bring to the table on this issue.
“We all know South Africa has a power backlog, we all know how a lack of sufficient energy in South Africa contributes to a very stagnant and sluggish GDP,” he said, but asked whether the deal was looked at in the context of other deals.
Affordable renewable energy
“There’s going to be – over the course of the next 20 years – change in the cost structures of renewable energies, in particular solar energy,” he said.
“The price of these alternatives are going to come down quite dramatically and coupled with an intention by government to embark on shale exploration or fracking as we call it, the question has to be asked whether such a huge spend on nuclear over the course of the next 20 years may be either unnecessary in the medium to longer term or in fact other technologies might usurp the nuclear option.”
Could this deal affect the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) that needs to be renewed by the US Congress in 2015? Listen to the full interview to find out.
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