Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa. Picture: GCIS
Minister of Electricity and Energy Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa says the government has a responsibility to make nuclear energy relatable to the South African public.
This amid negative opinions on the topic, leading South Africans to be sceptical due to the absence of the government’s voice.
Ramokgopa delivered a keynote address at the Nuclear Seminar hosted by his ministry in Irene, Tshwane, on Thursday.
Last month, Ramokgopa withdrew a gazette on the procurement of a nuclear energy plant.
This followed legal challenges to the decision to procure nuclear energy, as well as the National Energy Regulator of South Africa’s (Nersa) concurrence in the process. Lobby groups argued that public comments had not been sought and that the procedure had not been fair.
“I have taken the decision to withdraw the gazette to allow for that public participation to happen,” said Ramokgopa during a media briefing.
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“The only time we got to know and be alerted that the process was not subjected to a public consultation process is when the court papers were filed and the minister took the decision that we are withdrawing the gazette; we allow for that public participation so that the process is clean and transparent.”
The minister said the procurement of nuclear energy remains in the government’s plan for the country’s energy security.
On Thursday, Ramokgopa said South Africans need to understand that the government was not only aiming to provide electricity with nuclear energy, but also transforming the economy and improving “the dignity of our people and also making it possible for South Africa to realise her potential”.
“We also have an ambition of achieving conditions of energy security to protect and advance our sovereign interests,” said Ramokgopa.
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However, he said government must confront the political economy of energy and inform the public about nuclear procurement.
This will ensure that people receive accurate information, as opposed to information from lobby groups serving their own interests.
“There is very little conversations about nuclear, where are the nuclear people?
“We have entered an arena and period in this evolving energy complex, of lobbyists, of those who appropriate to themselves, the know-how of the technology and they have the capacity and potential to swell, undermine and discredit a technology, not supported by science and evidence.
“But that typical nuclear scientist will refuse to be dragged into the mud, because those in the mud have the capacity to survive in the mud. It is in your interest not to be drawn into the mud.
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“But there is a price you will pay: is that nuclear as a form of technology, a source of energy generation in the country, is on the backfoot. Essentially you’re on the retreat, because we’re unable to enter the public domain and have these conversations.”
According to Ramokgopa, the average South African must understand nuclear energy and its benefits. It is the government’s duty to communicate this, he said.
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“I was telling my deputy that you must advance the discipline, and show a correlation of how the discipline can help to take people out of poverty, how the discipline and the science can help us to transform society,” he said.
“We must inform people how they interact with this science on a daily basis unknowingly, it’s important that we’re able to surface that science and crystalise it in simple terms.
“We must generate an idiot’s guide on what is nuclear. The government owes it to the science to do it, otherwise the science as we know and the discipline is going to be decimated.
“It’s important that we’re able to articulate a coherent story of nuclear and how it contributes to our sovereign ambitions.”
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