In 2020 Minister Mantashe submitted a determination under section 34 of the Electricity Regulation Act to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) calling for the procurement of 2500MW of new nuclear generation capacity. After a public consultation process, NERSA issued a ‘conditional concurrence’, specifying three suspensive conditions. The main one of these was that the Minister had yet to demonstrate that such a procurement would be ‘rational’. The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) then submitted a response to these conditions to NERSA in July 2023 but controversially did not release that response to the public. The DMRE then announced it had received full concurrence from NERSA and was proceeding with the procurement process.

Many civil society organisations and academic groups maintain that there is no rational basis for a nuclear procurement, which is a possible explanation for the attempt by the DMRE and Mantashe to proceed without public scrutiny. Two organisations, SAFCEI and Earthlife Africa launched a court challenge which demanded that the reasons for lifting the suspensive conditions should also be subject to public comment.