LETTER: Zuma, Kremlin chess and nuclear power

Geopolitical tensions have risen dramatically in Northern Europe. The root cause is energy, or rather the lack of it, and the refugees forced up against the Belarusian-Polish border are just expendable extras in a confrontation masterminded by Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

A functioning Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline will isolate Ukraine and give Russia effective control over Western Europe, whose political elite have aided Putin’s plans through their panicked attempts to save the planet by unilaterally ditching fossil fuels. Neither Putin nor China’s Xi Jinping attended COP26. Northern Europe will have a difficult winter on several fronts.

The SA summer promises to be little better, with last week’s Eskom outages and concerted chorus for the removal of CEO André de Ruyter. Cable theft, suspected power station sabotage and multiple fires in KwaZulu-Natal’s rail and port infrastructure in the aftermath of the July “insurrection”, look more like destabilisation than just incompetence or mindless violence.    

Could the Kremlin’s chess master be playing a similar game with SA? Former president Jacob Zuma has always had close Russian ties and the failed nuclear deal was a severe blow to Putin’s African plans. The two Davids, Mahlobo and Mabusa, have made pilgrimages to Moscow under various pretexts and are still in positions of political influence.

Was the intelligence fiasco behind July’s riots solely due to administrative malfunction, or a concerted effort to ensure Ramaphosa did not get wind of the preparations? Are the internal ANC struggles between the radical economic transformation and CR17 factions more sinister than just the contortions of a geriatric organisation?

Could agreement to construct at least some of the eight promised nuclear reactors suddenly make many of Eskom’s problems disappear? I hope not, for while I back De Ruyter in a business sense, it is difficult to see how he could prevail if a geopolitical aspect was also involved, especially as Ramaphosa already appears to have been effectively neutered.     

James Cunningham, Camps Bay

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