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Archbishop Emeritus Njongonkulu Ndungane has expressed his “profound relief” at Wednesday’s High Court ruling on the nuclear deal, but warned that he expected Eskom and the government to “fight tooth and nail” to have it overturned.

Archbishop Njongo commended Earthlife Africa, Safcei, and other civil society organisations who have been in the forefront of opposing the deal for several years.

“This is a salutary lesson. Civil society in South Africa has doggedly persevered in doing what it believes is right in respect of the nuclear deal.

“That they have been vindicated by the High Court is a triumph of David against mighty Goliath.

“Government and Eskom should know that we do not intend to be brow beaten into submission,” the Archbishop added.

However, he said he fully expected government and Eskom to appeal the ruling, since the small cabal of people led by the President in whose interests the nuclear deal appeared to be being negotiated were unlikely to simply give up.

In addition, the various departments and SOEs involved would not want to see their expenditure to date having to be written off as “fruitless and wasteful expenditure”.

Archbishop Njongo expressed his deep disquiet that the South African government, which had been elected by the people to act for the people, was failing in its duty to protect the interests of the poorest peoples of this land.

“This is the second time in a matter of months that the courts have had to come to the rescue of our people. The first was the Constitutional Court ruling about grant payments. While I am grateful for the rule of law in both these cases, it should not be the case that we must run to the courts to protect our people.

“It is ironic that, 23 years into democracy, we are having to rely on the courts to interpret matters brought before them in accordance with the Constitution, the rule of law and the common good with integrity and by upholding the morals which we celebrated in 1994. It is a tragedy that it is being left to the courts, and not the representatives of the people, to highlight the dangers inherent in a contract that disgracefully places the entire responsibility for anything that goes wrong in the high-risk area of nuclear power only on the people of South Africa – and not on the external suppliers such as Russia,” Archbishop Njongo says.

He called on South Africans, when next they are called to exercise their ballot, to vote for a government that will act in the full interests of all the people of the land, and not just a select few.

“I have said previously that this nuclear deal will cripple the country’s economy. Our current debt stands at R1.89-trillion. When we borrow money to pay for the nuclear deal, our country will owe R3-trillion – an increase of more than 50%! Anyone with the most basic ability to balance a budget can see that increasing one’s debt by more than half is financial suicide,” the Archbishop said.

Issued by Quo Vadis Communications cc on behalf of Archbishop Emeritus Njongonkulu Ndungane