The South African government will start renegotiating its inter-governmental agreements on nuclear cooperation with five nations, Energy Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi said on Friday.
This comes after the government decided last week not to appeal a high court ruling that effectively halted procurement of new nuclear plants.
“In terms of the timeframes for the nuclear new build programme, we are starting with the work in June,” she told a media briefing after her budget vote speech to the National Assembly.
“We are restarting the process. We are signing new agreements. For me it does not make sense to take a 1995 agreement … The five of them – China, Russia, France, US, South Korea – we will renegotiate new agreements.”
Kubayi said she could not say how long it would take before Eskom could return to the market with a request for information after that issued in December was invalidated by the Cape Town High Court.
“To commit to a timeframe now, I would be shooting myself in the foot.”