In 2016, the government spent R180m in consultancy fees to advise the Department of Energy on how to manage nuclear procurement. In December, the government sprang the bombshell that it had transferred nuclear procurement from the department to Eskom. When I read the latest Financial Mail exposés it hit me in a flash — the inexplicable became all too explicable. The reason for the transfer is because corrupt directors and managers have already subverted Eskom’s supply chain management system. This will ensure a torrent of contacts and kickbacks by the nuclear patronage machine to its political clientele. When the few defenders of the nuclear deal still tried to argue it will cost less than R1-trillion, the government brazenly announced it would double its nuclear procurement from 9.4GW to 20GW, plus a uranium enrichment factory, plus a fuel element fabrication plant. Who can now dare pretend this will not cost more than R1-trillion? This will double the cash torrent to the political...
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