‘Nuclear too costly for SA’

South Africa cannot afford a nuclear programme, given its current fiscal constraints, but nuclear was expected to remain part of the energy mix, Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba said yesterday.

Ahead of his medium-term budget policy statement, Gigaba said the department of energy was in the process of reviewing the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), which sets out South Africa’s longterm energy needs. He reiterated that SA would continue with the nuclear programme at a pace and scale it could afford.

Gigaba’s comments come shortly after President Jacob Zuma replaced the minister of energy in a Cabinet reshuffle, raising fears that South Africa could introduce a nuclear programme it cannot afford. Eskom recently obtained environmental approval for more than 4 000MW of new nuclear generation capacity at Duynefontein, close to the Koeberg nuclear power station outside Cape Town.

The MTBPS made no new allocation to the nuclear programme.

South Africa’s financial position is dire – the consolidated budget deficit is expected to widen to 4.3% of GDP in 2017-18, compared to a target of 3.1% communicated in the February budget.

Gigaba said SA currently had an electricity surplus of 5 700MW, which was bigger than Medupi’s total capacity. The country would likely have excess capacity for the foreseeable future as it was a function of poor economic performance. When the economic outlook improved, energy needs could be reassessed.