Astonishing goings on at nuke body

The astonishing goings on in the state-owned Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa), the driver of President Jacob Zuma's nuclear 'arrangement' with the Russians, is revealed in a Mail & Guardian investigation, notes Legalbrief. Last month the Necsa board threw a spanner in the Zuma nuclear works by suspending Phumzile Tshelane, a lynchpin in the President’s plan for a new nuclear power station and CE of Necsa, for disciplinary lapses, which included allegedly donating state money to the ANC. Now, notes the M&G report, in an about-turn, Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson stands accused of stepping in, allegedly under pressure from above, to protect him. Six weeks earlier, in mid-December, she wrote to the Necsa board indicating her support for taking disciplinary action against Tshelane. On 1 February the board confirmed his suspension on a raft of allegations, including making an unapproved R150 000 payment towards the ANC’s 103rd birthday celebrations in Cape Town in January. But a day later, Joemat-Pettersson intervened. At a hastily convened special board meeting on 2 February, she and her two ministerial advisers called the Necsa board off Tshelane’s back, and urged it to let him return to work and for all of them to focus on the entity’s 'strategic direction', which includes playing a leading role in the new nuclear build programme. When the board refused, she announced a task team to investigate 'the affairs' of the board, claiming there had been numerous complaints and allegations levelled against board members and the management '… alleging serious mismanagement in relation to corporate governance and management issues'.