Moscow influenced S. Africa’s cabinet reshuffle: report

By Hassan Isilow

JOHANNESBURG (AA) - President Jacob Zuma reshuffled his cabinet Tuesday shortly after meeting with a high level Russian delegation said to be acting on orders of President Vladimir Putin, South Africa’s Sunday Times newspaper reported.

According to the newspaper, the unequivocal message given to Zuma by the delegation was to speed up and conclude a multibillion-dollar nuclear deal with Moscow.

The Sunday Times reports on its front page that hours after the meeting, Zuma shocked his African National Congress (ANC) colleagues and the nation by announcing another cabinet reshuffle, his second in less than seven months.

A source told the newspaper that Russian officials allegedly chose former State Security Minister David Mahlobo as the new energy minister, although Zuma had wanted to name Faith Muthambi.

“The Russians convinced Zuma to consider Mahlobo for the job,” the article said.

“Their visit was to deliver what many of us believe to be the final warning to South African authorities. We have now been warned. This group does not normally leave Russia. These are members of the Military, the police and intelligence,” the paper quotes an inside government source as saying.

Three years ago, Russia and South Africa signed a cooperation agreement between Russia’s state-owned Rosatom and South Africa’s power utility Eskom, which currently produces nearly 90 percent of its power from coal.

However, activists said the cost of the nuclear energy build project is too expensive for the country’s economy.

In April, the High Court in Cape Town ruled that the nuclear cooperation agreement reached between Russia and South Africa was unlawful. However, two months later the president said in response to parliamentarians that the nuclear contrction project would go ahead at a pace that the country could affford.

South Africa is a member of the BRICS countries -- a group of five major emerging economies -- along with Brazil, Russia, China, and India.

President Zuma’s spokesman Bongani Ngqulunga was not readily available for comment when contacted by Anadolu Agency.