There’s a curious naivety to Peter Bruce’s take on the proposed nuclear build. First, he assumes it’s necessary in terms of our long-term energy needs. At the moment, outages are the result of creaking distribution and not because demand exceeds supply. If and when Medupi and Kusile come on stream, we’ll have plenty of spare capacity we can’t afford. Since our industrial prospects are hampered by an unskilled workforce and an industrial relations environment that discourages investment, we won’t be needing the 9.6MW any time soon. However, what he has failed to note is that the real driver behind the decision (already taken, if Bruce were to follow the Earthlife case in the High Court in Cape Town) is the Zuptas’ interest in the backhander they are expecting from the Russians. Ten percent of R1-trillion is R100bn. Costs that would have to be offset against this include R600m — we know the number from Mcebisi Jonas — for whoever signs off on the deal. Assume R50m for each of 50% of t...
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