Cape Town – Former President Jacob Zuma has insisted he was correct in backing the nuclear deal with the Russians saying if South Africa had signed up for it there would not have been an energy crisis in the country.
Zuma’s support for nuclear comes at the time the country was in the midst of the rolling blackouts.
Eskom has been implementing Stage 4 load shedding in the past eight days, and on Friday it said it will implement Stage 2 of load shedding for the first time in a week.
Zuma said in an interview with Business Day that the country would not have experienced the energy crisis if nuclear was implemented.
Opposition parties, some within the ANC and energy experts had disagreed with the nuclear deal saying it was expensive and the country will not afford it.
The High Court in the Western Cape even ruled that a Parliamentary process would have to be followed in the inter-governmental agreements with vendor countries.
Former Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene was fired in 2015 after he refused to back the nuclear deal.
It was said the nuclear deal would cost the country more than R1 trillion.
It was the first time Zuma has spoken out publicly about his views on nuclear and insisting that it would have prevented the energy crisis.
Russian state energy firm Rosatom was one of the bidding countries for nuclear.
It has nabbed several contracts in Africa worth billions of dollars to build nuclear power plants. By:SIYABONGA MKHWANAZI
