The South African High court has ruled that a pact signed with Russia to build nuclear reactors is unlawful.
The rejection of the of the $76 million deal is a major setback to the government, and casts fresh doubt over the country’s energy plans.
Africa’s only nuclear power station, Eskom wants to add up to 10 nuclear reactors to help wean the economy off of polluting coal. The deal would have been the world’s biggest nuclear contract in decades, but the country’s former energy minister signed a pre-agreement with Russian state nuclear firm, Rosatom in 2014 without South Africa’s Parliamentary approval.
The deal was believed to have included a favourable tax regime for Russia and placed heavy financial obligations on South Africa.
The legal challenge to the Russian agreement was brought by environmental group Earthlife Africa and the Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute (SAFCEI) in October 2015.
Liz McDaid of SAFCEI said: “The judgement was proof that everybody in South Africa needs to know what’s going on – there are no more secret deals and everything has to be done in the open.
“If the government wants to push through any other deals, they have to come through Parliament and [it has to] be done properly. Any idea that we might go nuclear is off the table right now.”
After the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, many countries decided to cut back nuclear programmes due to environmental issues and risk to human life. However, South Africa is one of the few still considering a major new reactor project and the tender is eagerly awaited by manufacturers from South Korea, France, the United States and China.
President Jacob Zuma has previously expressed publicly his backing for expanding South Africa’s nuclear capacity – which currently only meets 3% of the country’s needs.
In his 2016 state of the nation address, President Zuma declared that the government would procure nuclear energy “on a scale and pace that the country can afford.” But the plans were heavily opposed by environment and civil society groups, while financial critics have long questioned whether South Africa’s economy can afford the deal.
The South African energy department has not commented on the ruling and not stated whether it intends to appeal.
