IT’s quite incredible that one man can have such a destructive influence on a country of more than 50+million people. Sure Hitler did it, and Mao Tse Tung, Kim Jong-un and a whole raft of dictators of the 20th century, but you would have thought that we would have learned our lesson by now.
I speak of Jacob Zuma whose influence on the country’s energy sector is perhaps his greatest act of destruction and exploitation – has all but brought Eskom to its knees.
Not only permitting and benefiting from the looting of Eskom and the appointment of incompetent crony cadres into positions which required experienced managers and technocrats, has robbed the country of an essential power supply.
His dalliance with the Russian nuclear industry and the suspected kickbacks involved in a nuclear build programme fed fuel to the anti-nuclear brigade, all but scuppering a nuclear base load power programme although there are stirrings of the proposed reactor installation at Thyspunt.
Once nuclear had been relegated and BBBEE policies entrenched, the door swung enticingly open for the politically connected to acquire interests in the coal mines from willing sellers keen to divest in yesterday’s problematic energy source.
What a wonderful scenario for the cadres – player and referee in the same sector! And from that unassailable position came the coal supply industry as well – creating kilometres long road trains of coal carrying trucks, destroying the road infrastructure, polluting the atmosphere with diesel fumes and CO2, while wasting valuable foreign exchange on imported trucks and diesel fuel.
But why worry, it’s all being paid for by the inexhaustible revenue from you and me, the South African tax payer! Don’t rock this lucrative boat with other forms of cleaner energy.
Regrettably common sense or the rule of law doesn’t prevail where widespread enrichment, corruption and looting succeed. Who in their right mind would give up a lucrative coal mine or transport contract for another energy source that would benefit the country and reduce global pollution and warming?
Leadership, then and now is non-existent.
The article A Transition Towards Sustainable Energy Security for South Africa that appears on the front page of this edition and issued by the South African Nuclear Build Platform (SANBP) provides insight on the need for a transition towards sustainable energy security for SA and why nuclear energy is so attractive to South Africa’s industry sector.
The arguments in favour of nuclear as a base load technology are indisputable – over 32 countries produce 10% of the worlds electricity from 445 power reactors and there are about 50 reactors currently under construction in 19 different countries, mostly in Asia. Even Bangladesh, globally recognised as a poor country, has two nuclear power stations under construction which are due to come on line by 2024, each delivering 1 200MW. Our great mentors, China (!) have 17 reactors under construction each producing 1 200MW and Cuba – great suppliers of water engineering expertise (!!) has two (now abandoned and unfinished) nuclear stations.
Why are we not building a stable, sustainable, non-polluting nuclear base load energy source here, repurposing existing defunct coal fired power station infrastructure and where waste heat from the nuclear fission could also be put to good use in the production of hydrogen – an advanced, non-polluting future fuel source? A rhetorical question.
Eish
