WE are mostly a chipper bunch here at the Mahogany Ridge. But all that may change, no thanks to the secret Russian nuclear deal that government insists is not actually a deal although the Russians think otherwise. 

Here's the worrying thing: not only is this a deal-that-is-not-a-deal that has bypassed due process, but it's a deal-that-is-not-a-deal that has been driven by Jacob Zuma. 

Despite not being, as DA leader Helen Zille put it, "an energy expert", the President nevertheless has apparently committed the country to God knows what without the input from physicists and slide rule wranglers that one expects on such occasions. 

But perhaps one needn't be that much of an "expert". The Russians, after all, can and do build nuclear reactors and Rosatom, the state-owned company involved in our deal-that-is-not-a-deal, is currently building several of them outside of Russia.

The big problem, as far as we're concerned, is the money involved. It's a lot. Given the secrecy involved, it's not unlikely that the trillion rand bill bandied about in the deal-that-is-not-a-deal will eventually escalate to three times that amount. We will pay for that. Dearly.

And, at ten times the size of the Arms Deal, we're talking about a corruption quotient that has at least the half-life of plutonium.

Add to this the unstable element that is the President and we have a potential for massive disaster. This is a simple and unsophisticated son of the soil, we are told, who could not even manage a few rudimentary renovations at his country home without costs skyrocketing upwards of R250m.

In this respect, the ruling party has grown hoarse from defending Zuma from accusations that he was aware of the vast sums spent at Nkandla and insisting that it was dereliction of duty by officials who had ignored supply chain management procedures and allowed a rogue architect to hijack the project.

That may well be the case - just as there may well be pixies and leprechauns who roam the village streets on nights the moon is full. But why take chances? It is a matter of public record that, when it comes to financial matters, there are species of plants deep within the Amazon forests that have more acumen than Zuma.

Here is a man who constantly needed help when it came to balancing the books. He was so mired in debt ten years ago that none other than Nelson Mandela had to come to his rescue with a million rand donation. Such was the elusive nature of the very nuts and bolts of money that the fraudster Schabir Shaik was obliged to foot the bill for Zuma's clothing, air tickets, children's education, cars and even taxi fares.

Now he has apparently been allowed to sit down unsupervised and talk shop with Vladimir Putin, a leader not exactly unknown for his ruthless cunning? With our money? What the hell were they thinking? 

Quoting an unnamed senior ANC leader, the Mail&Guardian yesterday reported that Zuma "had ironed out details directly with the Russian president" at the Brics summit in Brazil in July and finalised details of the pact during his furtive visit to Moscow last month. As the source put it, "It was simple. When Zuma came back from Brazil, it was done."

The newspaper published details of a draft nuclear co-operation agreement which makes it clear who is the done party here and who is the party wielding the iron. 

For example, SA would be limited to acquiring only Russian reactor technology; Russia would have exclusive say over the auxiliary construction contracts; Russia would have a 20-year veto on SA doing business with any other nuclear vendor countries; and SA would be exclusively liable for all nuclear equipment procured from Russia as soon as it left that country. 

"These clauses," the M&G's source said, "either flouted sections of our Constitution, which guarantees an open, competitive and transparent bidding processes, or they were not in our national interest." 

There is now speculation that the sudden and unceremonious departure of Ben Martins, the former Energy Minister, and Nelisiwe Magubane, the department's director general, may have been due to their unhappiness with these usurious conditions as well as the aggressive pushiness with which the Russians wanted SA to sign the agreement.

Clearly, Martins and Magubane did not want to act in the national interest, and so they had to go. Enter, then, the Zuma loyalist, Tina "Fishy" Joemat-Pettersson, who, as the new Energy Minister, does what she's told. 

And so we're worried.

This article first appeared in the Weekend Argus.

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