Former minister gives his word on nuclear deal
Ben Martins explains his signature after notice in gazette sparks storm of accusations on social media
THE government has not gone behind the backs of South Africans to sign any nuclear deal over the Christmas season.
So says the man whose signature is attached to this week’s Government Gazette notice that sent social media into a frenzy of accusations that President Jacob Zuma and his cabinet waited until the holidays to sneak in the controversial R1-trillion nuclear deal.
But former energy minister Ben Martins — dropped from the Zuma cabinet last year — said that all that was published this week was a “ministerial determination”, which was the first step of the process.
The tendering process was yet to start, said Martins.
“The note with [the National Energy Regulator of South Africa] is . . . looking at the beginning of a process [to say] is this viable or is it not viable? Then Nersa has to look at what the energy needs of the country are and . . . sign off,” he said.
Martins said his understanding was that although the document was signed on November 11 2013, it was only gazetted this week because it first had to go through a cabinet subcommittee made up of about eight departments.
It then had to go to the cabinet for approval.
It still had to go through a parliamentary process, and then would go out on public tender.
“There are a number of countries with expertise on nuclear. For instance, Russia is very good with infrastructure . . . France is the best in instrumentation, and other countries like [South] Korea, they all have their specialities. There isn’t a single country that can deliver on all aspects . . . when you build a house you have a major contractor, somebody else might be good on carpentry . . . so you call in all those issues. But the country still has to decide.
“Even if you read the document itself . . . it says there must be an open tender process,” he said.
The Treasury would still have “to come in to say, ‘Can the country afford this?’,” said Martins.
His views were backed up yesterday in a statement released by Thabane Zulu, director-general of the Department of Energy.
Zulu said they had delayed gazetting the agreement between Nersa and Martins signed in 2013, and the department “accepts this should have been made clear when the determination was gazetted on 21 December”. He said cabinet had made a decision to develop nuclear power plants in June. More recently, at a cabinet meeting on December 9, they heard report backs from the Department of Energy and the Treasury about the financing of such a programme. They were now going to develop a final funding model.
“The Department of Energy is committed to cost effectiveness and full transparency,” said Zulu. “We will ensure that the integrity of the process is safeguarded at all times.”
The notice in the gazette said the Department of Energy will be the procurement agency for any nuclear deal, and that the tendering process will be “fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost-effective”.
It states all the nuclear power generated would be sold to Eskom unless the energy minister decided that it could be sold to additional buyers.
In the October supplementary budget, the only amount set aside for nuclear was R200-million, which senior Treasury officials said would be spent on global research into the best funding models for nuclear new build.
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan recently gave the assurance that the nuclear procurement process would go ahead only if the country could afford it.