We demand answers now

The Sunday Times this week submitted official requests for access to the controversial, secret nuclear agreement signed between South Africa and Russia last month.

In a bid to uncover the details of the agreement, we have submitted requests for the document, under the Promotion of Access to Information Act (Paia) to the presidency, the Department of Energy and parliament.

"We are still trying to unravel the secrets of the arms deal and now we have what appears to be a concealment that will put that deal to shame," said Phylicia Oppelt, Sunday Times editor.

"If the nuclear deals have been signed to provide for South Africa's future energy demands, then surely South Africans should know just what our government has committed us to.

"It is for this reason that we launched the application, not only on behalf of this newspaper, but for our nation's sake."

President Jacob Zuma's government has been shameful in its silence since Russian nuclear agency Rosatom released a statement last month which appeared to indicate that a deal to supply eight nuclear reactors with an estimated cost of $50-billion (R550-billion) had been signed.

A similar statement was later released by the Department of Energy.

But at a press conference last week, the department furiously back-peddled, announcing that the deal was merely one of a number of framework agreements to be signed with various countries, which would allow South Africa to gather all possible information before starting the procurement process.

While the department has promised that the agreements would remain transparent, no information on the contents of the documents has been released.

Rosatom further muddied the waters this week when it announced that the initial statement had merely been a case of "lost in translation".

Rosatom's regional vice-president for Sub-Saharan Africa, Viktor Polikarpov, was also quoted as saying the agreements are "classified". Rosatom's South African public relations company Magna Carta (headed up by Zuma's former spokesman Vincent Magwenya) did not respond to a request on Friday to clarify whether the document was classified, and by which state or department.

Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson has also finally broken her silence on the matter, applauding reports that the confusion was because of translation issues.

"It confirms what the Department of Energy has been saying consistently on the agreement signed on September 22," she said.

The minister's statement was sent to the Sunday Times in response to several questions over the signing of the agreement.

She did not respond to questions on why she had not made a statement on the matter herself, despite widespread confusion over the agreement and whether Rosatom's statement could have had a negative effect on other agreements still to be signed.

Joemat-Pettersson is set to sign a similar co-operative agreement with France on the sidelines of the World Nuclear Exhibition, which opens in Paris on Tuesday.

Presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said Zuma had granted her authority, under Section 231 of the Constitution, to sign the agreement.

And while Maharaj would not indicate Zuma's precise involvement in the lead-up to the Russian agreement being signed, he indicated that the president had granted the minister the authority to sign that deal too.