The South African Civil Society Information Service
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
Glenn Ashton -
South Africa is supposed to be a developmental state yet the intentions that inform our national energy policy are at odds with the lived reality of most citizens. President Zuma’s 2011 promise to deliver electricity to every home in the country by 2014 will not be met. More importantly, despite free electricity allowances, many of those connected to the grid find this power unaffordable.
South Africa’s approach to electrical power supply remains monolithic and inflexible....
“If you leave it to the Japanese government, we're never going to get transparency,” contends Arnie Gundersen a nuclear specialist. “Japanese researchers are afraid to tell the truth. We've got doctors calling us saying we know our patients have radiation illness and the hospital isn't allowing us to tell the patients that. We've got researchers talking about defects in animals, and they're not allowed to publish their data,” says Gundersen, in response to recent...
Last week Japan's nuclear watchdog said a toxic water leak at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant has been classified as a level 3 "serious incident" on an international scale. But, Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear argues that this rating is far too low. He explains what Fukushima really means for the planet.
Presently there are large volumes of radioactive groundwater leaking into the Pacific Ocean from the site, bypassing an underground barrier built to contain it. Meanwhile there...
Anna Majavu -
The latest electricity price hike of 14.6% will hit the poor hard - as usual - but in fact it is the least of their worries.
Despite South Africa’s sunny and windy climate, and the availability of huge areas of deserted land where wind and solar power farms could be erected, the ruling party is continuing its love affair with the Russian, French and Chinese nuclear corporations currently trying to sell us their nuclear power stations. Once the poor get saddled with the interest...
A Japanese parliamentary inquiry has concluded that the 2011 nuclear meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was "a profoundly man-made disaster that could and should have been foreseen and prevented".
The more than 600-page report urged greater safety around nuclear plants. It also urged the Japanese government to be more transparent about its relationship with the nuclear industry. In a surprise turn, the report also leveled criticism at the Japanese culture of...
Ebrahim-Khalil Hassen -
Whilst it is early days in the costing of our government’s infrastructure investment programme, ballpark figures suggest R800bn will be spent over the next 20 years. The numbers are still to be tallied, but it appears that the proposed nuclear power stations will be the biggest beneficiaries of government investment since 1994.
Government’s second Integrated Resource Plan indicates that nuclear energy will contribute to approximately one quarter of all power generated in South...
