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Brace yourselves for a paid and frontal nuclear public relations charm offensive, as “a large Russian state energy corporation” turns to private companies seeking African and South African partners to sweeten the deal.
At this point it is no secret that the government plans to add 2,500MW of nuclear power to the country’s energy mix by 2030. Just the other day, South Africa’s National Energy Regulator (Nersa) invited comments on the plan.
Writing in Daily maverick In July 2020, Dirk Knoesen, Emeritus Professor of Physics and Director of the Nanoscience Platform at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) and Senior Lecturer Leslie Petrik, from the Department of Chemistry, warned that “the feasibility of nuclear reactions in new generation providing power safely in the near future is scarce ”.
The previous month, in June, Gwede Mantashe, Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, justified the issuance of a renewed request for information (RFI) on nuclear construction and that it would follow “solid financing options”.
Now a Russia-based communications team, the Creative Projects Agency, has called on South African partners to mount a media tour that includes print, online and television media, and was designed around a mysterious “independent speaker” who will bet on nuclear power and Rosatom. Of course.
The project director, Natalia Ghittori, in an email to potential South African partners, shyly wrote that “one of our clients, a large Russian state energy corporation (the name of the company that we cannot disclose at the moment under NDA) interested in realizing a public relations campaign in South Africa and we are looking for a local partner to help us in this task ”.
After a briefing by the Department of Mineral Resources in May 2020, the environmental justice NGO Earthlife Africa – Johannesburg and the Communities of Faith of Southern Africa – that forced Vladimir Putin and Zuma to expose the nuclear deal ” Zuma’s secrecy “of R1 trillion and to the courts, warned that proceeding with any nuclear deal would violate a judgment rendered by the Western Cape Superior Court in 2017.
Future settlements will be limited by the trial, but Mantashe and advocates of nuclear power are moving forward.
Knoesen and Petrick, in their overview of the nuclear landscape, concluded that “you have to wonder why the nuclear RFI was issued now, amid the Covid-19 pandemic and despite our huge debt burden. Has anyone been incentivized to put nuclear power back on the table, hoping that we are too distracted to notice? “
As for the incoming campaign, the plan is not to distract, but to poke fun at the South African media, including a paid trip to Russia, to give massages and make us less resistant to the nuclear financial aftershock.
In regards to the Creative Projects Agency, the campaign would look like this:
1) More than 13 publications mentioning the company name in 3 months according to the press materials provided by us;
2) 2+ posts in 3 months on behalf of a local independent expert favorable to the development of nuclear technologies in SA, mentioning the Client;
3) organization of 2 press trips to Russia or another country with the following KPIs:
5 participants representing 5 South African media,
5+ publications in local media for the result of the press trip.
Scope of the work we expect from you:
Preparation of a list of means for invitation, negotiations with the media, assistance in the collection of documents for the visa, follow-up and delivery of a copy of the published material.
4) organization of 4 local press events with KPIs:
10 participants representing 10 South African media
8+ publications in local media as a result of the press trip.
Scope of the work we expect from you:
Media relations: preparation of a media list for an invitation, sending the invitation, accreditation, working with the media on site, follow-up and delivery of a copy of the published material.
Event logistics: rental of premises, rental of video and audio equipment, catering, technical assistance to the speaker if necessary.
Ghittori said Daily maverick that “as a responsible public relations agency we have NDAs (nondisclosure agreements) with all of our clients and therefore, as a general rule, we do not disclose the names of our clients.”
Trailer mail for South African partners, he said, was only a “small part” of the company’s communications contract “in Africa and is not specific to South Africa.”
The company also worked with “local independent experts who are willing to share their own personal views on relevant issues from an unbiased position.”
You have been warned. DM
