Nuclear deal halted thanks to NGOs and independent judiciary

Pravin Gordhan, shortly after his sacking as finance minister, told South Africans to "connect the dots".

His sacked deputy, Mcebisi Jonas, added: "If you look at everything in South Africa in the past few years, there is a certain pattern. Events point to particular interests being protected and consolidated."

• Kubayi makes her presence knownEnergy Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi will investigate what legal avenues exist to hold former employees accountable for the Strategic Fuel Fund (SFF), which sold the country's oil reserves.

It is reasonable to assume the pair were referring to connections between politicians and the Gupta family and a greater web of nefarious interests.

South Africa's proposed nuclear deal with Russia is one of those dots we need to connect and which was last week declared invalid by the High Court in Cape Town.

• New energy minister departs from nuclear scriptEnergy minister Mmamoloko Kubayi has committed her department to public participation and transparency around the nuclear procurement programme.

An article on The Conversation website suggests Jacob Zuma's persistence in pursuing the nuclear deal could be linked to the Gupta family's web of interests which is spun around it. The family controls South Africa's only dedicated uranium mine and the former public protector last year pointed out overlapping directorships between Gupta-owned companies and Eskom.

• Energy minister admits SA's strategic fuel stock was soldNew Energy Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi has admitted that South Africa sold much of its strategic fuel stock last year‚ contradicting her predecessor‚ Tina Joemat-Pettersson.

Former ANC MP Vytjie Mentor suggested that Gordhan was called back from an investor road show in London where he told a certain "Mr Chenkov" that the government would not be developing nuclear energy.

The SA Communist Party also claimed Gordhan was fired because he was blocking the nuclear deal. If these claims are true, at least South Africa still has a line of defence - our independent judiciary - against what feels like an onslaught.

If it were not for the case brought by the two NGOs, Earthlife Africa and Southern African Faith-Communities' Environment Institute, and our independent courts, South Africans would have been none the wiser on the details of the deal which, for example, completely indemnified Russia of all liability in the event of a nuclear accident. For now, the good news in bleak times is that a dodgy R1-trillion deal has been seen off at the pass.