DA calls on Energy Committee Chairperson to summon Tina Joemat-Pettersson over Nuke Deal
3 August 2015
The DA welcomes the decision by the Chairperson of Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Energy, Fikile Majola, to concede to the DA's demands for greater transparency and public involvement in the hereto secretive Nuclear New Build Programme, and to hold public hearings on the government’s plan to build nuclear power reactors.
In order to ensure that these hearings are more than pre-arranged ANC talk-shops, I will today write to the Chairperson of Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Energy, Fikile Majola, requesting that the Minister of Energy, Tina Joemat-Pettersson, is the first person to appear before Parliament to disclose her department’s feasibility and affordability research into the secretive multi-billion rand Nuclear Build Programme.
The DA's position on nuclear is clear: while we are not against nuclear forming an important part of SA's energy mix, we have serious concerns with regard to the impact of the new build programme on an already fragile economy and the potential for nuclear to price the poor our of legal electricity usage. It is for this reason that the cost implications must be thoroughly assessed before the procurement process can commence.
There is a widely held public opinion that South Africa’s largest-ever procurement deal is tainted with secrecy and that it is unfolding behind closed doors. These hearings should afford South Africans a real opportunity to get to grips with exactly what government is proposing and at what price.