Opinion: Court’s ‘clean slate’ nuclear directive a big opportunity for new Energy Minister

Having been effectively directed by the Western Cape High Court to “start with a clean slate” when approaching the controversial issue of nuclear procurement, South Africa’s new Energy Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi has some big calls to make. In the April 26 judgment signed off by justices Lee Bozalek and Elizabeth Baartman acknowledgement is made that it would be “inappropriate for the court to prescribe to the Minister the form of any procurement process to be adopted”. Nevertheless, the ruling makes it plain that the non-transparent processes hitherto employed for a procurement with such “far reaching consequences” for the South African public and the allocation of resources by government are neither rational nor lawful.