Nuclear determination lacks merit – DA launches legal challenge
8 March 2024
The Democratic Alliance has today served court papers on the Minister of Electricity and the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) in relation to their s34 determination to procure 2500Mw of new nuclear power generation.
We contend that the determination was procedurally unfair, and failed to permit public comment on the submissions on which it was based. We will therefore be seeking to have it set aside.
On 26 January of this year, the Minister of Electricity, Kgosientso Ramokgopa, published the determination in the Government Gazette. It is our opinion that the determination published – signed on 10 March 2020, by the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Gwede Mantashe – is invalid, because it was made by the wrong Minister, namely Mantashe. By the time the determination was finally made (in January 2024, or alternatively when NERSA concurred in August 2023), the power to make that determination rested with Ramokgopa.
We note further that the gazetted determination does not include a key requirement of NERSA, that the procurement of additional nuclear generation must be on the basis of an Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract, rather than fragmented contracts.