ANC rewriting government documents to facilitate deal with Rosatom 

28 October 2014

The ANC today used its majority in the energy committee to deliberately misrepresent the findings of the government's own updated 20 year energy plan (IRP 2013), which specifically calls for a delay in the nuclear build programme.

The DA strongly objected to the wording of the Budget Review and Recommendation Report in which it was stated that the updated energy plan "reconfirms nuclear as a supply side solution to meet environmental and macroeconomic development objectives", when it in fact states the exact opposite. 

It is clear now that the ANC in Parliament is willing to twist government's own recommendations to pave the way for the Rosatom deal. 

The ANC is simply rewriting the conclusions of the government's own energy plans. In a bizarre turn of events, the ANC argued that it will use its majority to vote down the DA's factual statement that the IRP update "calls for a delay in the nuclear programme and puts forward financial benchmarks to guide our decision over the nuclear programme." 

The IRP update has clearly become an inconvenient document for the ANC as it pours cold water on the nuclear deal. This is further evidenced by the ANC chairperson of the energy committee Fikile Majola making the statement that "the IRP update will not see the light of day." How can it be that a committee chairperson refuses to accept a government policy document? 

It was also stated by other ANC members of the committee that because the President had announced that we were going nuclear the findings of the IRP update were irrelevant. 

This latest turn of events is clearly part of a broader strategy of the ANC to ignore all government documents like the NDP, the IRP update and numerous energy experts who are pointing to the fact that this nuclear deal does not make financial sense for the country. 

The DA will therefore continue its quest for a proper debate to be held in Parliament on the subject of our nuclear energy programme so that the true costs of this deal can be seen by the public. The DA will also continue to ask questions about the status of the IRP update and whether cabinet has accepted its findings. 

The ANC will inevitably have to respond to the facts that continuously point to major problems with its proposed nuclear build programme. 

Statement issued by Lance Greyling MP, DA Shadow Minister of Energy, October 28 2014

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