Nuclear would have solved our problems – Zuma

A nuclear deal with Russia would have solved South Africa’s energy crisis, according to former president Jacob Zuma, who also denies that the more than R1-trillion cost of the programme would have crippled the economy.

“I think we are going to pay trillions of rands because of the problems of energy,” he said in an interview this week.

“But if we went for nuclear, we will be out of spending trillions for a shorter amount of time and we’ll make more trillions. So the truth is the opposite.”

Former finance ministers Nhlanhla Nene and Pravin Gordhan were among multiple witnesses in the state capture inquiry who raised serious concerns about the potential cost to the economy of concluding a deal with Russia.

Nene said he believed he was axed as finance minister in 2015 after he refused to endorse the deal for the $100bn (R1.42-trillion) programme, which he said would have cost the equivalent of 90% of SA’s budget in the 2018 fiscal year.

But that is not how Zuma sees it. “The fact of the matter is nuclear could solve our problems, once and for all,” he said.

“Now we are in deep, we are therefore increasing the debt of the country with no hope to bring it down.

“That’s a problem. Nuclear, we could have got into whatever expenses but we’d be able, even through it, to have more funds to pay our debts.”

Nene maintained further that he was pressured by Zuma and then energy minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson to sign off on the deal, despite there being no information on the financial implications, funding model and risk mitigation strategies.

Zuma admitted that he pushed for SA to conclude the nuclear deal during his term, but claimed the government had commissioned multiple studies that justified it.

He insisted that a deal with Russian nuclear agency Rosatom was in SA’s best interests.

“Some of the countries, when we were looking for this, I compared their offers.

“Their offers were very limited,” he said.

“Russia was offering more things, including preparing our people to run our own [nuclear plants]. I made very serious comparisons.”

Zuma denied that either he, or the ANC, was bribed to do a deal with Rosatom.

“I don’t know how many times people have said Zuma is corrupt.

“They have not produced [proof of] a single cent of that nature,” he said.

“It’s just propaganda, clear propaganda.”

South Africa’s current energy crisis, Zuma said, “is partly because we have been hesitating – for example, we blocked this one [the Russian nuclear deal], which is clean energy that is in agreement with the global policy and approach of not polluting”.

“Our delaying this is causing problems of how we handle the current energy crisis.”

He said ongoing debates about the potential privatisation of energy parastatal Eskom and use of independent power producers did not help.

“It makes the problem remain in the same place.”

So why was he so intent on a deal with Russia, rather than other countries?

Zuma said Russia had proved it was worthy of trust by supporting the ANC during the anti-apartheid struggle – by providing education, training, weapons, food and healthcare to ANC comrades in exile.

“Russia carried the biggest load in supporting us,” he said.

“Russia looked after our health, they never charged us a penny.

“So we cannot, when we are now free, forget about people who were our friends at the time of need.”

He maintained that Russia would not take harsh action against SA if it defaulted on the repayments for the funding of nuclear power plants.

“They would not come for us,” he said.

“They would understand, we would have an agreement to work out another arrangement.

“Others will come for us, will force us to go to some financial thing so that they suck our funds forever.

“We know they [Russia] are trusted people.

“We know they will never sink us, they will lift us.”- Business Day