Eskom may take over nuclear job

Eskom is looking at taking over the massive nuclear build programme from the department of energy following comments by a key government minister this week, despite questions about its ability to implement mega projects and whether the country can afford the nuclear build.

Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe this week suggested that Cabinet wanted to back-track on the decision to have the department of energy be the lead nuclear procurement agent.

Instead, it might be Eskom.

This contradicts a Government Gazette directive in December, which designated the department as “the procurement agency in respect of the nuclear programme”.

Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson on Friday postponed the publication of the long-awaited request for proposals related to the nuclear procurement project.

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Radebe said that this couldn’t be done until the Integrated Resource Plan was updated.

There is widespread expectation that if the 2010 plan was updated, it would not advocate nuclear at all due to the tough economic environment and falling costs of renewable energy.

Chris Yelland, a publisher and energy commentator, said that this marked a “very fundamental shift”.

According to Yelland, it now seems like Eskom is exploiting a “leadership and policy vacuum” in government to “stick a peg in the ground and take over”.

“Eskom probably has more capacity than the department of energy, but it is deeply conflicted,” he said.

Gordon Mackay, DA shadow minister for energy, said the move to strip the department of energy of its role as the state’s procurement agent in favour of Eskom was a “blatant attempt” by the Zuma administration to sideline parliamentary oversight of the new nuclear build.

Khulu Phasiwe, an Eskom spokesperson, said that Radebe’s comments were “a vote of confidence in Eskom”.