Nine things wrong with nuclear programme, according to Vytjie Mentor

Former ANC MP Vytjie Mentor has again shared her disapproval of the nuclear programme following reports that Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba allegedly met with the World Bank on Friday to discuss funding options.

The nuclear programme has been met with criticism from the public and political parties alike, with the Democratic Alliance threatening to interdict any attempt by Energy Minister David Mahlobo to force through a nuclear deal.

The party said South Africa did not need nor could afford the estimated R1 trillion deal.

“With each passing day, it becomes clear that Minister Mahlobo was appointed to make sure that the necessary nuclear deal would be pushed through.

“We will not allow Mahlobo to appease his friends, the Russians, at the expense of millions of South Africans who are struggling to survive with no jobs in a flat economy.

“The DA will use every legal and parliamentary tool at our disposal to ensure that the generations to come will not be shackled to massive debt that will compromise South Africa’s future,” said the party in a statement on Sunday.

Now Mentor has shared nine reasons why she thinks the nuclear programme would be a bad idea for South Africa:

1. It is extremely expensive (especially to maintain), and although it will cost a trillion rands to construct, it will take 7 trillion rands to maintain.
2. It will indeed impoverish us for decades and generations to come.
3. They received bribes from Russia for it.
4. It is dangerous (Remember Chernobyl and Fukushima).
5. Our nuclear (PBMR) Intellectual Property Rights have been pirated and our nuclear human capital has been deliberately eroded.
6. It’s very complex and more expensive to mothball once it has exhausted its usefulness.
7. We don’t have a good track record of maintaining any infrastructure, and we burn and destroy things when angry.
8. They don’t want to build nuclear in their own countries, but they want to do it on our own soil in order to bankrupt us and to expose us to danger.
9. They plan to build several nuclear stations all over the country, and that in itself will multiply the risk.

What do you think of Mentor’s reasons?

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