Govt to push ahead with procurement of nuclear energy: Ramokgopa

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Electricity Minister Kgosientsoe Ramokgopa says government will push ahead with the procurement of nuclear energy to deal with the country’s energy crisis.

This is despite earlier opposition to the high cost of procurement from Russia during the Jacob Zuma administration.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) was among those who opposed the deal during the Zuma era, saying it was fraught with corruption.

Dr Ramakgopa was speaking to the media on the sidelines of the two-day Cabinet Lekgotla underway at the Presidential Guesthouse in Pretoria.

He says the previous procurement proposal was for 9 000 megawatts, but this time they are proposing 2500 megawatts.

“The 2 500 megawatts from nuclear is not a panacea, it’s just part of the totality of the mix. If you think of the mix it’s over 50 000 megawatts. So it’s just a small part of the mix. The initial efforts to procure this nuclear, first it’s talking over 9 000 megawatts, now we are talking 2 500 megawatts. So it’s talking to the scale and pace that we can afford, all that we are doing is that we are going in that direction and also what is important is the transparency of the process because it can be soiled and discredited in that. So, that is open to everyone and that is something that we can afford.”

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