JOHANNESBURG, (Reuters) – South Africa will delay starting the procurement process for a new nuclear power station to allow for more consultation, its energy minister said on Friday, following legal challenges.
The government said in December that it was preparing to request bids for an extra 2,500 megawatts (MW) of nuclear power, but the then-opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) party and two non-governmental organisations launched legal challenges to try to block the procurement.
The DA is now part of the coalition government formed after the African National Congress lost its parliamentary majority for the first time in three decades in an election in May.
Separately, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed into law legislation that lays the foundation for a competitive electricity market, his office said in a statement.
The long-planned reforms in the Electricity Regulation Amendment Act are part of efforts to make the power sector more efficient in Africa’s most industrialised economy, which has been plagued by rolling blackouts for years although there have been no outages for more than four months.
Announcing the delay to the nuclear procurement on Friday, Electricity and Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa conceded there should have been greater public participation so far.
He said he had decided to withdraw a document in the government gazette that would have allowed the procurement to proceed.
Officials will rework a report addressing conditions the energy regulator gave for its support for the procurement and consult the public again.
Ramokgopa made clear that the government still wanted to expand its nuclear capacity beyond the 1,900 MW Koeberg plant outside Cape Town at a pace and scale the country could afford.
“Nuclear is part of the future, but it’s important that as we go out and procure, the procurement process must be able to stand the test of time,” the minister said.
He estimated the procurement process could be delayed by three to six months.
Many South Africans are wary of the government’s nuclear ambitions after a 9,600 MW deal with Russia initiated during Jacob Zuma’s scandal-plagued presidency was thwarted in 2017 by a court challenge.
Koeberg is the only operational nuclear power plant on the African continent. It was granted a 20-year life extension last month.
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