WORLDVIEW: Unravelling of the $100bn nuclear deal began at a quiet Drakensberg resort

The illustration of a society at peace with itself is when old men plant trees whose shade they will never know. It's a bit like that for investigative journalists. These hardy servants of society have the painfully slow task of accumulating of scraps of evidence. Eventually, their efforts lead to the unravelling of nefarious designs by those who would prey on society..Rowan Philp is one of the finest examples of his breed. An education which includes stints at MIT and Harvard, the erstwhile chief reporter at the Sunday Times throttled back in mid-2013, leaving the big city for the original "Sleepy Hollow" – taking up a post of leading the newsroom at Pietermaritzburg's daily The Witness..This unlikely step was to deliver the first hard evidence of an unaffordable nuclear deal between South Africa and Russia. A deal blown out of the water yesterday when the High Court ruled in favour of civil society litigants and sent the entire process back to square one..___STEADY_PAYWALL___.In August 2014, reports first surfaced that SA President Jacob Zuma had met with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to agree on a nuclear build programme which the country never needed. It involved Russians building a fleet of nuclear power plants that would cost an estimated $100bn, a cost which would potentially bankrupt the country..A month after the presidents agreed terms in Moscow, Russia's nuclear operator Rosatom announced publicly it had secured a deal to build the plants in SA. A few weeks later, The Witness's heavyweight recruit decided to act on a tip off and took a midweek trip to Champagne Sports, a quiet golf resort tucked away in the KZN's central Drakensberg..Philp discovered a four-day conference in session between a group of 20 Rosatom employees and four dozen counterparts from the SA Department of Energy. Their cover blown, the SA nuclear chief Zizamele Mbambo agreed to an interview where he told Philp the meeting was simply one leg of an international "beauty parade". Philp's evidence galvanised other investigations and in October 2015, civil society organisations SAFCEI and Earthlife Africa launched their court action which culminated in yesterday's epic judgement..Along the way, former firebrand ANC MP Andrew Feinstein warned the proposed nuclear deal was window dressing for a plan by the politically-connected to plunder billions from SA's taxpayers. Feinstein's exposure of corruption around the Arms Procurement Deal led to him being kicked out of Parliament and going into exile. He says the nuclear deal would make the $300m in bribes paid in the Arms Deal "seem like small change"..Yesterday's High Court judgement is probably not the end of the nuclear saga. It is, however, a huge blow for those trying to drive through the process. The court has wiped out all the nuclear deal "progress" made since that August 2014 presidential meeting. Zuma underestimated the resilience of SA's Constitutional Democracy. Having already fired two finance ministers over this deal, he is unlikely to simply walk away now. Best to brace yourself for another outrageous act.

WORLDVIEW: Unravelling of the $100bn nuclear deal began at a quiet Drakensberg resort

Related Stories

Meet Tshepo Mahloele – Big Capitec shareholder, ABSIP’s “CEO of the Decade” now accused by Holomisa as kingpin of corrupt network

PREMIUM: Making of a great editor – the George Palmer playbook

Premium – BizNews global portfolio: ASML joins – so does Adobe as Bull takes hold again

Alec Hogg: Helen Zille predicts SA choice will be DA or EFF