We won't appeal nuclear judgment – Minister

Energy Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi will not appeal last month's ruling by the Western Cape High Court that government’s attempts to secure 9.6 gigawatts of nuclear energy were unlawful, she said on Saturday, notes a report on the IoL site. On 26 April, two judges of the Western Cape High Court hearing an application by Earthlife Africa and the Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute (Safcei) set aside as unlawful and unconstitutional the initial section 34 determination (in terms of the Electricity Regulation Act) to procure nuclear energy in 2013, the subsequent section 34 determination in 2016, and the co-operation agreements signed with Russia, the US, and South Korea. Costs were ordered against the Minister. Kubayi said she had instructed the department to review the processing of all future section 34 determinations and review all determinations in place to ensure compliance with the judgment. Further, in accepting the ruling of the court and ensuring that no impropriety was suggested in future, the department would seek to ‘apply standardisation in both form and processing (relating to proper tabling before Parliament and its committees) of all intergovernmental agreements to be concluded with international countries’.