Zuma denies family’s hand in nuclear deal
Under-fire president asked by Maimane if he’s misleading SA
PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma said he knows of no transaction of any members of his family related to South Africa’s envisaged nuclear build programme. “I know nothing,” Zuma said in the National Assembly in response to a question from DA leader Mmusi Maimane on whether he or any of his relatives would benefit materially from the nuclear deal.
However, Zuma said the government was still committed to its pursuit of adding 9 600 megawatt of power to the electricity network using nuclear power “at a pace and scale the country could afford”.
He said South Africa’s global commitment to reducing emissions would be helped along by building nuclear plants, which he said was the safest form of energy.
“We need it as much as possible, so we reduce that which pollutes the space or the universe.
“We can’t delay it. We are going to create this kind of energy.”
On a recent court ruling that the government did not follow the correct process before making a decision to pursue the nuclear build programme, Zuma said this did not affect government’s intention to build these power stations. It only affected the process, said Zuma.
Zuma said nuclear energy was central to South Africa’s efforts to keep the lights on and that it would not be misused.
“Those who think we creating bombs, no we are not creating any bombs. It would be used for peaceful purposes.”
Maimane’s question on whether Zuma was misleading people “like he did with Nkandla” appeared to irritate Zuma, who insisted he had done nothing wrong, and called on the opposition leader not to spread untruths about him.
“Nothing was ever found that I was involved in anything except that it was my house that was being built, that was all.”
Zuma rejected an allegation by an opposition party MP that Rome was burning while he was fiddling, a reference to the time it was taking for him to institute a probe into allegations of state capture.
Responding to MPs in his quarterly questions-and-answer session, Zuma insisted enough was being done to probe the allegations that the Gupta family was influencing key government decisions and milking the fiscus. “The fact is the former public protector investigated, that was something being done. Some of the aspects of the report has been taken on review. I can’t be saying while Rome is burning, people are just sitting.”
Zuma said even Parliament had instructed its committees to probe allegations of state capture contained in, among others, a trove of e-mails which reportedly link various government decisions to the