Cape Town - Energy Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi could on Tuesday shed light on whether she will appeal a Western Cape High Court decision to scrap South Africa’s proposed nuclear build programme.
Kubayi was to face MPs today in her first appearance in Parliament since her appointment to the position a month ago, following President Jacob Zuma’s cabinet reshuffle.
She was expected to brief the portfolio committee on energy on the nuclear build programme.
Chairperson of the committee Fikile Majola confirmed to Independent Media at the weekend that Kubayi would appear before them.
He said the new minister would be quizzed on the nuclear build programme, as it was a cabinet-driven process.
Majola said they wanted to know what would happen following the Western Cape High Court’s decision last Thursday to scrap the entire process. Kubayi had indicated after the judgment that she would decide what to do next. She said one of the avenues open to her was to consult Parliament.
She said she had not decided whether to appeal or not, but would study the court judgment and take a decision after that.
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Eskom, meanwhile, has said it would halt all processes related to nuclear energy. Last Friday was the deadline for bidding companies to submit their Requests for Information documentation.
Eskom opened the RFIs in December last year and set the deadline for last Friday. However, the court’s decision has halted this process.
Eskom’s Requests for Proposal was the next phase for the programme, but that has also been called off.
The RFPs were due to be closed next month.
Former minister of energy Tina Joemat-Pettersson said in March that more than 20 companies had expressed interest in the nuclear-build programme after they had submitted their RFIs to Eskom.
The programme would cost the state up to R1 trillion. Experts warned at the weekend that if it went ahead, the costs could be higher because of a number of other factors.
NGOs, moreover, have said they did not want nuclear as it would bankrupt the state, and South Africa did not need this type of energy.