{"id":206659,"date":"2017-10-22T07:36:20","date_gmt":"2017-10-22T05:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=206659"},"modified":"2017-10-22T07:46:21","modified_gmt":"2017-10-22T05:46:21","slug":"mahlobo-was-chosen-by-russia-to-speed-up-sas-nuclear-deal-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/206659\/mahlobo-was-chosen-by-russia-to-speed-up-sas-nuclear-deal-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Zuma reshuffled his cabinet after meeting with Russian government: report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A team acting on orders from Russian president Vladimir Putin reportedly met president Jacob Zuma just before his surprise\u00a0cabinet reshuffle.<\/p>\n<p>Several ministers were removed or transferred to new departments in the reshuffle \u2013 including David Mahlobo being made the new minister of energy.<\/p>\n<p>According to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/sunday-times\/news\/2017-10-21-from-russia-with-love-how-putin-had-a-hand-in-cabinet-reshuffle\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Sunday Times<\/strong><\/a>, Putin\u2019s team told Zuma to \u201cspeed up and conclude a multibillion-dollar nuclear deal with Russia\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Hours after the meeting, the cabinet reshuffle took place.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTheir visit was to deliver what many of us believe to be the final warning to the South African authorities. This group does not normally leave Russia. These are members of the military, the police, and the intelligence,\u201d a source told the newspaper.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMahlobo was chosen by the Russians.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nuclear deal<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The report stated that Mahlobo was chosen by the Russians after Zuma indicated he wanted Faith Muthambi for the energy job.<\/p>\n<p>The Russians convinced Zuma to consider Mahlobo for the position \u2013 which was given to him without the approval of the ANC top six.<\/p>\n<p>Several ANC members have warned that the move could destabilise the government and South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>Following\u00a0Mahlobo\u2019s appointment, the new energy minister said South Africa will\u00a0move ahead\u00a0with nuclear power.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSouth Africa recognises the role of nuclear power in ensuring security of energy supply and meeting the challenge of climate change,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSouth Africa has made a policy decision to pursue nuclear energy as part of the energy mix.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>You can read the full story in the Sunday Times for 22 October 2017<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/192248\/sa-will-continue-with-nuclear-procurement-because-it-will-create-jobs-report\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">SA will continue with nuclear procurement \u2013 \u2018because it will create jobs\u2019: report<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A team acting on orders from Russian president Vladimir Putin reportedly met president Jacob Zuma just before his surprise\u00a0cabinet reshuffle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":206671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9874],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-206659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206659"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206673,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206659\/revisions\/206673"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}