CAPE TOWN, April 26 (ANA) – Earthlife activists were jubilant outside the Western Cape High Court after it found government’s nuclear procurement processes to be unlawful and unconstitutional.
Judge Lee Bozalek delivered judgement on Wednesday to a packed courtroom. The case was brought by Earthlife Africa and the Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute against government in 2015.
The applicants argued that government could not afford the one trillion rand it would cost to go ahead with the nuclear deal.
Activists at court described it as “a victory for South Africans” after government’s agreements with Russia, the United States and South Korea were set aside by the court.
The court also found that former energy minister Tina Joemat-Petersson had acted unlawfully when it moved the procurement of nuclear energy to Eskom in 2016.
Despite the inclement weather, there was a festive atmosphere outside court as activists danced in the rain.
Meanwhile, nuclear proponent, Dr Kelvin Kemm, said he was surprised that the courts have declared the country's nuclear deals signed with several countries as unlawful.
Kemm is a business strategist and CEO of Nuclear Africa who appointed to the Board of the National Energy Regulator last year.
"My reaction to this is that it's rather a surprise. I did not expect the courts to come in favour of this rather frivolous action by Earthlife Africa and this religious group," he said.
"There's constant misunderstanding about this so-called agreement with the Russians. There is an agreement that has been signed with Russians, Koreans, French, Chinese and others on technological inter-actions and a techonogical basis from which to work for any potential nuclear interaction we have whether they're nuclear power or anything else," said Dr Kemm.
"There's been no nuclear deal signed for acquisition for anything from Russia and the anti-nuclear lobby, I think knows this but they keep persist in making up these false accusations that there's a secret deal for R1 trillion which has been signed behind everybody's back."
"I'm directly involved in this and I know of no such secret deal or anything on which they base these accusations," said Kemm.
"So, it looks to me like a lot of false information has been taken at face value and has been highly misleading. But, I don't see it as a major problemn, I don't see this as really affecting anything in particular. At some stage good sense should rule and we should get back on the track that we are on. I don't see it making any particular difference to the way in which we're working right at the moment," Kemm added.
– African News Agency (ANA) - (Additional reporting Algoa FM)
