Mahlobo standing firm on Nuclear Deal

20 February 2018

At the Energy Portfolio Committee today, Minister Mahlobo sent out a clear signal that he remained committed to the nuclear deal.

For example, he rejected studies carried out by the CSIR and Eskom that found that the building of new nuclear power stations would be prohibitively expensive and superfluous.

Significantly, Minister Mahlobo refused to agree with President Ramaphosa who said at Davos recently that we could not afford to build any new nuclear power stations.

Instead, Minister Mahlobo maintained that the procurement of nuclear energy was an integral part of the energy mix going forward and that the new Integrated Resource Plan approved by Cabinet reflected that.

It is quite clear that the "new dawn" promised by President Ramaphosa cannot proceed with Minister Mahlobo in his Cabinet.

We call on the President to shuffle Minister Mahlobo out of his Cabinet as soon as possible. This will open the door to reconsidering the IRP approved by Zuma's Cabinet and shut the door on the corrupt nuclear deal once and for all.

Issued by Gavin Davis, DA Shadow Minister of Energy, 20 February 2018