Zuma’s nuclear bombshell
President tears into critics of his energy plans, blames the West for stripping SA of its pre-1994 capability
A visibly aggrieved President Jacob Zuma yesterday slammed the critics of the mooted nuclear deal, suggesting that they did not know the country’s history.
Zuma told a gathering of ANC branches during Tambo Memorial Lecture in Kagiso, West Rand, that Western countries had prevailed on the apartheid government to dismantle its nuclear weapons and programmes before the Communist Bloc-backed ANC could take over power at the end of the Cold War.
“Do you see where the nuclear issue comes from? They said [the ANC] shouldn’t be in control of nuclear because they are communists. Destroy all that you have so that they don’t acquire the skills to run nuclear,” he told the branches.
Zuma’s comments come on the back of a report in City Press yesterday in which Energy Minister David Mahlobo said the government would go ahead with its plans to acquire nuclear energy. Experts have estimated that a nuclear programme would cost more than a trillion rand.
Mahlobo’s remarks fly in the face of Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba’s assurances that the country cannot afford nuclear for at least five years.
On Friday Zuma, who toured the Steve Biko Academic Hospital’s nuclear unit in Pretoria with Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi, punted the nuclear line.
When Motsoaledi bragged about the expertise in the hospital’s nuclear unit, Zuma interjected: “Nuclear. Remember the nuclear.”
A Russian state-owned company is widely tipped to win the nuclear build tender if Zuma’s plan goes ahead. The president said yesterday that those who don’t support the forces aligned to the former Soviet Bloc were backing the wrong horse.
“I hear some saying ‘we don’t want nuclear, we don’t nuclear’. Webabo! In other words, in the balance of forces, you are supporting the wrong forces,” he said, adding that the ANC started negotiations for a democratic order on the back foot because powers that backed it had collapsed.
He suggested that what are known as the sunset clauses – which allowed for economic compromises in favour of the former rulers of SA and their supporters – were opposed by people like Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma who apparently insisted that there should also be a “sunrise clause”.
“Due to the sunset clauses, the ANC is working with people who had declared it their enemy. We were forced to be friends even though we were not,” Zuma said.
The memorial lecture was clearly a presidential campaign for Dlamini-Zuma. Those who attended were given yellow Tshirts with “NDZ17” on them.
Those who praised Dlamini-Zuma and Zuma included Water and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane and Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Des van Rooyen.
Mokonyane portrayed Zuma as a victim, saying a lot of people hate him because he wants to bring the land back to the people.
Zuma also used the memorial lecture to plead for the unity of the ANC, saying deep-rooted factions were threatening to tear the ruling party apart.
“Unity is a critical element of the existence of the ANC. Factions need to be uprooted... They come from there [West], from the people who want to weaken the ANC. Let’s destroy them and build the ANC.”
Zuma said he was surprised the ANC leadership race was dividing the party. He also said the ANC-led alliance needed to be respected and preserved.
Meanwhile, political analyst Somadoda Fikeni warned that Zuma was making a mistake by linking his quest for nuclear energy to nuclear weapon know-how.
He said this might cause other countries to view SA as a country with nuclear weapons ambitions, like Iran.
“South Africa has been a leader in nuclear weapons non-proliferation and the ANC took that decision, starting with the Sisulus and the Mandelas. Before that time, South Africa [under apartheid] thought African countries would one day rise against [her] and that nuclear was a deterrent,” Fikeni said.
“If your finance minister says it’s not affordable and you want to do it nonetheless, you are giving wings to speculation that you promised to give [the contract] to someone.”
The DA has threatened to interdict any attempts by Mahlobo to clinch a nuclear deal.