{"id":5078,"date":"2015-08-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-08-20T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amabhungane.org\/amabhungane\/advocacy\/doe-claims-nuke-procurement-details-classified\/"},"modified":"2024-10-16T16:12:02","modified_gmt":"2024-10-16T16:12:02","slug":"doe-claims-nuke-procurement-details-classified","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/doe-claims-nuke-procurement-details-classified\/","title":{"rendered":"Advocacy: DoE claims nuke procurement details classified"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Thedepartment of energy on Wednesday refusedto disclose key records related to the impending procurement of new nuclearpower stations, South Africa\u2019s largest tender yet at a ballpark R1-trillion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTheimportance of transparency in a matter involving public expenditure on such ascale cannot be over-stated. The department\u2019s response falls woefully short ofthe required standard,\u201d said amaBhungane advocacy co-ordinator Karabo Rajuili.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/cdn.mg.co.za\/content\/documents\/2015\/08\/20\/150819doeamabresponsetorequestforaccessstorecords-21.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Read the department of energy\u2019s refusal<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The ANC, in its National General Council discussion documents, addedits voice this week to a growing call for transparency in the nuclearprocurement, saying: \u201cGovernment must commit to afull, transparent and thorough cost benefit analysis of nuclear power as partof the procurement process, and clarify the status of the update to theIntegrated Resource Plan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGovernment must also announce publicly that nuclear energy canonly be procured in line with the legal prescripts and after a thoroughgoingaffordability assessment.\u201c<\/p>\n<p>AmaBhunganesubmitted a Promotion of Access to Information Act (Paia) request to thedepartment after a media briefing on July 14 about the country\u2019sreadiness to embark on the nuclear build programme. At the briefing, the deputydirector\u00a0general for nuclear energy\u201a Zizamele Mbambo, said a review proved thatthe proposed nuclear build is \u201cfundable\u201d and will \u201ccontribute positively to theeconomy of the country\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>AmaBhunganerequested records including the contracting strategy for the nuclear buildprogramme, records relating to the financing arrangements, and studies about regulatoryindependence and institutional arrangements.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/cdn.mg.co.za\/content\/documents\/2015\/08\/20\/150820amabdoedoeiipaiaformaidredacted.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>See amaBhungane\u2019s Paia application<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In refusing to disclose the information, the department claimedcommercial and third-party exemptions. It added: \u201cWe confirmthat the reports are classified. Thus, at this stage, the disclosure of thereports would be premature, and therefore, access is refused&#8230;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Paia exemptions such as those claimed should, however, be read in line with the provisionsof the Constitution, which specifies transparency in state procurement.<\/p>\n<p>AmaBhungane will file an internal appeal as permitted under theAct.<\/p>\n<p><em>AmaBhungane engages in advocacy under its mandate to helpsecure the information rights investigative journalists need to do their work. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>* Got a tip-off for us about this story? Click <a href=\"http:\/\/amabhungane.co.za\/page\/contact-amabhungane\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amabhungane.co.za\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/amabhungane.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/94x94.jpg\" width=\"94\" height=\"94\" align=\"left\" \/><\/a><strong>The <em>M&amp;G<\/em> Centre for Investigative Journalism (amaBhungane) produced this story. All views are ours. See <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amabhungane.co.za\">www.amabhungane.co.za <\/a> for our stories, activities and funding sources.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Advocacy: Energy department refuses access-to-info request; amaBhungane to appeal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20387,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advocacy"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5078"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31689,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5078\/revisions\/31689"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}