Powerhouse pair nuke Russia deal
• South African women win award that recognises grassroots activism
Two very determined women fly home from the US this week after being lauded for their role in derailing the trillion-rand nuclear power agreement between SA and Russia.
Standing on the stage of the San Francisco Opera House last week, Makoma Lekalakala of Johannesburg and Liziwe McDaid of Cape Town both sought to deflect personal kudos after winning the 2018 Goldman Prize, a global award that recognises grassroots activists for “significant achievements to protect the environment”.
Instead, they said honour was due to a much broader group of local activists, lawyers and volunteers who sounded the alarm bells when they got wind of a secret deal between Russia and SA in 2014. Had the deal not been halted, they fear future generations would have been saddled with a crippling financial bill and almost perpetual responsibility for dealing with radioactive waste and the risk of nuclear accidents.
Given the staggering monetary costs and risks to human health and the environment, it seems remarkable that it was left to two small nongovernmental organisations to take up the legal cudgels and shine more light on the murky deal, eventually securing a landmark victory in the High Court in Cape Town in April.
Judge Lee Bozalek, who tore up the deal following a legal application by Earthlife Africa and the Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute, was not impressed by the government’s claims that it was merely a “framework” or nonbinding agreement.
“I am unable to accept that [this deal] can notionally be considered a routine agreement. The agreement’s detail and ramifications are such that it clearly required to be scrutinised and debated by the legislature,” he said.
The judge said that at best, former energy minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson had behaved irrationally or failed to apply her mind properly.
At worst, she appeared to have deliberately bypassed correct procedures “for an ulterior and unlawful purpose. The applicants estimated that the costs, which will ultimately be met by the public through taxes and increased electricity charges, could be approximately one trillion rand and this estimate was not disputed by [the government]. As the applicants point out, the allocation of such significant resources to the project will inevitably affect spending on other social programmes in the field of education, social assistance of health services and housing.”
Receiving her Goldman prize last week, Lekalakala said: “As concerned citizens we stood up against the unlawful and unconstitutional exercise of power by our government and in the public interest we turned to the courts to protect our rights and those of Mother Earth, and we were vindicated.”
The Soweto-born activist and director of Earthlife Africa, Johannesburg described nuclear energy as “a recipe for disaster and centuries of cancerous radioactive waste”.
Fellow Goldman winner McDaid said the case was not simply about halting new nuclear power plants, but also about unravelling high-level corruption. “The hardest part in these struggles is to first stand up, and every one of us carries the spirit of justice within us. Wake that spirit! Stand up against those who destroy the environment, impoverishing our lives to fill their own pockets.”
The Goldman Prize, set up nearly 30 years ago by US philanthropists Richard and Rhoda Goldman, recognises grassroots environmental activists and to inspire a new generation of younger activists.
In winning the 2018 prize, Lekalakala and McDaid join a long list of prize winners that include the executed Nigerian activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, Kenyan “Greenbelt” founder and Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai, Durban antipollution activists Bobby Peek and Desmond D’Sa and Karoo antifracking leader Jonathan Deal.
Interviewed in Washington DC via Skype, the two women paid tribute to Moscow-based antinuclear activist Vladimir Slivyak, who leaked a copy of the Russia-SA agreement to Earthlife nearly four years ago. Because it was drafted in Russian, Earthlife had to engage translators, so the full terms could be understood.
Buried in the details was the weasel clause: “In the case of a nuclear accident, SA will accept all of the liability.”
When such details emerged, both women began mobilising public opinion. In Gauteng, Lekalakala helped to organise protests outside Eskom and the Department of Energy, and arranged community meetings.
In Cape Town, McDaid and her colleagues organised protests outside Parliament every Wednesday as ministers in blue-light convoys arrived for the weekly Cabinet meeting. Come rain or shine, the protesters maintained their vigil for more than two years.
Lekalakala, who grew up among activists at the forefront of the 1976 Soweto uprisings, said she had learnt that “nothing is impossible” and that “if something is wrong you must challenge it”.
McDaid, a former science teacher who became an activist in the early 1980s, said: “I have a ‘button’ that causes me to respond assertively when pushed against.”
And it seems that certain MPs pushed that button quite hard when they suggested that faith leaders belonged in church and should not “meddle” in political affairs.
Lekalakala said she never expected to receive the prize, but was honoured to be recognised among people who had inspired others through their courage. McDaid also hopes her recognition will inspire other activists. “We need a new generation of young people to hold their political representatives accountable,” she says.
In addition to a monetary prize to support their campaigns, both women also received a bronze sculpture called the Ouroboros. Common to many cultures around the world, the Ouroboros depicts a serpent biting its tail, a symbol of nature’s power of renewal.
But was the nuclear court case a knockout blow, or just a first-round victory?
McDaid believes the court ruling has “pushed the reset button” on future nuclear procurement plans, while Lekalakala said she was heartened by recent remarks by President Cyril Ramaphosa that SA could not afford new nuclear power plants.
Both women say their focus now will be on raising public awareness around the science of nuclear energy, climate change and shifting away from coal-fired electricity to renewable energy technologies such as solar and wind.
And they are adamant that the Koeberg nuclear power station must be shut down.
“There is still no solution on how to deal with high-level nuclear waste.
“The current generation are going to have to pay for the folly of the apartheid government that built Koeberg. So let us not incur any further costs for future generations,” says McDaid.