It’s Monday and we could all use a feel-good story, right? Well it’s not going to be this one so buckle up, things will get bumpy.

If you pay close attention to the news you may remember that our Energy Minister signed a huge deal with Russia last year, although naturally all the details remained top-secret and we were left in the dark (like Eskom load-shedding level three kind of dark).

Well thankfully some journalists have had a good snoop around and found out some of the details of this mega-deal. Highlights from the Mail and Guardian:

…the Russians will have a veto over South Africa doing business with any other nuclear vendor. And it will be binding for a minimum of 20 years…

[We will] require Russia’s permission if South Africa wants to export nuclear technology it develops locally as a result of learning from the Russians, thereby hindering government’s aim that the nuclear new-build programme will develop a globally competitive local nuclear industry.

[The deal hands] the Russians a host of regulatory concessions and “special favourable treatment” in tax and other financial matters, but offers South Africa no such incentives.

Whilst these don’t sound like panic-mode concessions what does prompt worry is the secrecy with which the deal was conducted. Many of our officials raised concerns about certain clauses in the deal but their complaints fell on deaf ears, with some even removed from the process completely. The Mail and Guardian again:

…the process of finalising the agreement was managed by a powerful group of officials in the energy department, two of whom accompanied Zuma to Russia on his “medical” holiday last August, a month before the deal was signed.

Now transparency has never been our government’s strong point, stretching back to when we used horse-drawn wagons, but there is just too much fishiness around this deal to be ignored. Brush up on your Russian kids, I’m starting with ‘give me vodka and lots of it’.

[source:mg]