Civil society sceptical about Minister's IRP

The Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute (SAFCEI), along with other civil society organisations, will once again seek legal counsel about government’s proposed nuclear deal. This time, the organisations are seeking advice about the legality of the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) which is said to have been passed by Cabinet, but is yet to be announced as such.

“It seems that the Minister wants to scare us into submission or confuse us with alternative facts. On Wednesday, he stated that the IRP had been approved by Cabinet, but formal notification is yet to be made public. We will continue to fight for our right to be involved in these decisions and won’t be discouraged, particularly since we have the law and the Constitution on our side,” says Liz McDaid, SAFCEI’s energy expert.

“According to the Minister of Energy, nuclear energy will always be a part of South Africa’s energy mix. What we want to know is, how does government keep coming to the conclusion that nuclear energy needs to be part of the country’s energy planning? Globally, and locally, all the scientific and experiential evidence points to the end of the nuclear era, and the dawn of a dynamic renewable and just energy future,” says McDaid.

Zainab Adams, the Outreach Coordinator at SAFCEI says, “Since the Minister of Energy blatantly snubbed civil society by deliberately excluding us from his energy indaba, it is clear that we do not have ethical democratic governance and will have to work towards it going forward.”

ENDS

For more information, please see the previous release here: http://safcei.org/energy-peoples-indaba-minister-snubs-civil-society/