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Cape Town – The Nuclear Industry Association of South Africa is upbeat about plans to build nuclear power plans, but it has called for a fair tender process.
MD Knox Msebenzi said the nuclear energy agreement between South Africa and Russia was good news for the country.
He said it was no different to any other agreement made between China and other major investors in the country.
It’s just the hype about nuclear that is causing an issue around the agreement, he said.
“This would just have been one of those things that would have been announced and nobody would have taken note of it, but because there is this talk about nuclear, we believe that is why there is so much hype about that.
“The good news for the association is that we will build the nuclear power plants,” said Msebenzi.
“What we would like to see is a fair process where the best contractor gets the job. You can’t just look at the initial cost [if it is too high] and say let’s throw it out of the window,” he said.
Listen to the full interview:
Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Energy Thembisile Majola was apparently left out in the cold about the deal , DA energy shadow minister Lance Greyling said on Tuesday.
Greyling said that he used an opportunity during a portfolio committee meeting on energy to pose the question to the minister about the confusion surrounding the energy agreement.
“She claimed that she actually knew nothing about the agreement,” he said. “Unfortunately, we still don’t have any more clarity on what exactly has been signed with Russia and whether … it involves a normal bi-lateral agreement or whether a … deal has been struck for them to be supplying us with nuclear reactors.”
He said the minister signed a draft agreement on her last visit to Russia which had a clause allowing the country to veto other countries that wanted to do nuclear business with South Africa.
“If that agreement had been signed, I believe that would have basically gone against all the tenants of good governance and the public procurement process, because we have to have a competitive bidding process … if it’s going to have any kind of validity.”
Listen to the full interview:
- Fin24
MD Knox Msebenzi said the nuclear energy agreement between South Africa and Russia was good news for the country.
He said it was no different to any other agreement made between China and other major investors in the country.
It’s just the hype about nuclear that is causing an issue around the agreement, he said.
“This would just have been one of those things that would have been announced and nobody would have taken note of it, but because there is this talk about nuclear, we believe that is why there is so much hype about that.
“The good news for the association is that we will build the nuclear power plants,” said Msebenzi.
“What we would like to see is a fair process where the best contractor gets the job. You can’t just look at the initial cost [if it is too high] and say let’s throw it out of the window,” he said.
Listen to the full interview:
Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Energy Thembisile Majola was apparently left out in the cold about the deal , DA energy shadow minister Lance Greyling said on Tuesday.
Greyling said that he used an opportunity during a portfolio committee meeting on energy to pose the question to the minister about the confusion surrounding the energy agreement.
“She claimed that she actually knew nothing about the agreement,” he said. “Unfortunately, we still don’t have any more clarity on what exactly has been signed with Russia and whether … it involves a normal bi-lateral agreement or whether a … deal has been struck for them to be supplying us with nuclear reactors.”
He said the minister signed a draft agreement on her last visit to Russia which had a clause allowing the country to veto other countries that wanted to do nuclear business with South Africa.
“If that agreement had been signed, I believe that would have basically gone against all the tenants of good governance and the public procurement process, because we have to have a competitive bidding process … if it’s going to have any kind of validity.”
Listen to the full interview:
- Fin24
