Mahlobo rushes nuclear deal

As Energy Minister David Mahlobo forces his nuclear power plans into action, officials are working weekends to finalise the country’s reviewed integrated energy resource plan – four months ahead of schedule. The plan to determine the country's energy mix was expected to be finalised in February next year, but will now be finished in the next two weeks. HELP GROW THIS PETITION NOW. “We would have been talking February, but now we are talking November 14,” said an insider, vouching for the level of hard work the minister was putting into his job. This would enable Mahlobo to make projections of the country’s future energy demands based on “empirical evidence”. Last week, Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba told City Press that nuclear energy was neither affordable for the sluggish economy, nor immediately necessary. Mahlobo, who has been in his new job for just more than two weeks after three years as state security minister, is now on a collision course with Gigaba and Treasury. The nuclear energy plan is expected to cost South Africa about R1 trillion, an amount that economists and politicians from across the spectrum – including the ANC – say the country’s struggling economy cannot afford. Mahlobo told City Press yesterday morning that government should not be “reckless”, but energy was central to the country’s security and shouldn’t only be treated as an economic issue. https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/mahlobo-rushes-nuclear-deal-20171105-2