#greenmovement — Public Fediverse posts on home.social

"Written by Mr. Hügo Krüger, a civilian nuclear engineer whose biosketch indicates that he is ‘writing a book on the #GreenMovement and its negative effect on global politics’, he describes it as advice he would give government when selecting a #NuclearPowerPlant. As part of this checklist, the author advises government to question, 'Is there a legal and national security strategy in place to battle the NGO industrial complex so they cannot intentionally delay the project?'

"The antagonistic note struck in this guideline offers deep insight into what the #NuclearIndustry really feels about democratic processes and illustrates the contempt in which it seems to hold civil society groups that call upon government to engage citizens in good faith by providing platforms for meaningful public debate and to see to it that adequate civilian oversight mechanisms and legal safeguards that guarantee restitution to affected communities are in place before it [government] contemplates making a decision of this magnitude.

"Presumably, #ProNuclear voices will become more shrill as the window of opportunity for undertaking such an ambitious venture narrows due to government’s room for fiscal maneuver being squeezed by the toll which rolling electricity blackouts (called ‘load-shedding’ in South Africa), lackluster economic growth and ballooning public debt, among others, are likely to exert on government finances.

"If so, South Africans can expect nuclear #lobbyists to redouble their efforts to influence key policymakers and that the preference they previously revealed for conducting deals behind closed doors away from public scrutiny will intensify.

"For this reason, it is asserted that the nuclear industry represents an imminent threat to the system of democracy in South Africa and contends that, until the nuclear question is settled decisively, it will continue to chip away at the country’s fragile democratic foundations by casting aspersions on those who seek to hold public representatives to account and advocate for greater public input in decision-making by portraying them as being unpatriotic or anti-development.

"To combat the threat posed by the nuclear lobby and reinforce our system of democracy, this author moves that the South African government should put its nuclear plans to a public referendum, but only after suitable public education campaigns are run to address the public’s limited knowledge of nuclear power.

"A nuclear referendum is the ideal way to force nuclear supporters and pro-nuclear politicians to make their case to voters and the tax-paying public rather than direct their efforts to attacking those who seek to ensure that government acts with transparency and makes decisions that are genuinely in the best interest of all South Africans not just a small clique of insiders.

"Unlike the lists of guidelines drawn up by sundry nuclear lobbyists, this is one nuclear #policymaking guideline every South African will agree government ought to abide by."

https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2023/11/26/a-nuclear-assault-on-freedoms-in-south-africa/

#NoNukes #SouthAfrica #NuclearLobby #Corporations #Censorship #Secrecy #CorporateColonialism

#nuclear #freedoms #southafrica #greenmovement #nuclearpowerplant #nuclearindustry