‘Blank cheque’ for nuke deal
Russia is seen as the frontrunner to win the right to build SA nuclear power plants in a contract ‘worth R1.2 trillion’.
Uber Technologies drivers in Johannesburg are facing harassment following a protest on Friday by taxi operators who compete with the personal transportation service.
Uber has been in contact with the police and deployed security to help prevent intimidation by metered taxi drivers at the Sandton City shopping mall and Sandton Gautrain station in northern Johannesburg, the San Francisco-based company said yesterday.
One Johannesburg woman’s Uber driver was “too scared” to pick her up after being intimidated with a gun by rival taxi drivers in the financial hub, a local radio station reported.
There was a “small escalation” in incidents of intimidation following a small, non-violent protest on Friday, Samantha Allenberg, a spokesperson for Uber Africa, said.
Uber has been in talks with metered taxi associations since the beginning of the year to find a way to partner with them, the company said.
Uber has faced opposition with taxi operators worldwide since its founding as a potentially cheaper and faster alternative in 2009. The company connects drivers with passengers via mobile applications in more than 300 cities.
Uber drivers in Cape Town are suffering xenophobic discrimination from traffic police and lengthy waiting times for licences, said Allenberg. –
Russia is seen as the frontrunner to win the right to build South African nuclear power plants that may be worth as much as $100 billion. But who is going to finance the mammoth bill just six months before the contract is awarded remains a mystery.
Estimates for as many as eight reactors generating 9 600 megawatts, which the government wants to begin operating from 2023 and complete by 2029, range from $37 billion to $100 billion.
Bids are due to start this quarter, with Russia’s Rosatom seen as a leader. Areva, EDF, Toshiba’s Westinghouse, China Guangdong Nuclear Power and Korea Electric Power have also shown interest.
The planned investment comes as the government battles to fend off a junk-grade credit rating and the National Treasury seeks to rein in the budget deficit. Proceeding with the nuclear plants could result in a massive increase in public debt, the International Monetary Fund warned in June.
“There appears to be a simple-minded assumption countries such as China or Russia will provide cheap plants and offer finance,” Steve Thomas, professor of energy policy at the University of Greenwich in the UK said. “That’s an illusion.”
Rosatom may have a head-start in the bidding because of the close historical ties between the ANC and Russia, according to analysts. President Jacob Zuma has met Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin several times the past year and the two nations have signed a nuclear cooperation accord.
But South Africa has concluded similar pacts with China, France, the US, Japan and South Korea.
Rosatom has agreed to fund construction of plants elsewhere, as it did in Hungary in 2013 to the tune of $13.3 billion.
Rosatom refused to discuss the issue yesterday.
The nuclear programme will benefit the country for the next 80 years and promote industrialisation, said Zizamele Mbambo, a deputy director-general at the department of energy. “The return on investment will far exceed the investment,” he told reporters.
While the new plants will go ahead, the cost and funding arrangements still have to be worked out, energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson said.
“The true test of affordability for nuclear power will be in the price and financial offering provided by technology suppliers,” she told parliament. “It is crucial to start the actual nuclear procurement as soon as possible.”
“I’ve always been sceptical of such an ambitious programme for a country such as South Africa,” Chris Gadomski, an analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said. “You have gone through this exercise in 2007-8. What stopped it was the lack of finance. Little has changed as far as the capacity to finance this.” –