Fired community representative battles Mantashe in court bid to be reinstated on board of nuclear regulator

Activist Peter Becker was appointed to the board of the National Nuclear Regulator (NNR) on 10 June 2021 as its community representative after being nominated by civil society organisations including the Koeberg Alert Alliance (KAA), the Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute and the Pelindaba Working Group. 

The NNR is a public entity, overseen by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy. According to its website, the regulator was established “to provide for the protection of persons, property and the environment against nuclear damage through the establishment of safety standards and regulatory practices”.

Becker, meant to serve on the NNR board for a period of three years, was fired on 25 February for “misconduct”, with the minister of energy and mineral resources, Gwede Mantashe, stating in a suspension letter that Becker’s presence on the board “may prejudice its effective and efficient functioning”.

Becker has instituted legal action against Mantashe, and the matter was heard virtually in the Western Cape High Court on 9 November, with Becker asking that the decision to dismiss him be reviewed and set aside. 

According to court documents, the minister’s take is that even though he appointed Becker to the board knowing that he is an activist, it was problematic that Becker, “continued to express his political views after his appointment, in a manner which made it evident that these views would infect his ability to act as a neutral member of the Board”.

Mantashe refers to Becker as wearing three conflicting hats: “one as a member of the NNR Board, one as a representative on the Board, and one as the spokesperson of the KAA.  

“Unfortunately, the applicant appears to have believed that after his appointment as a director of the NNR, he could remain as the designated spokesperson for KAA; and leverage his position as a director of the NNR to promote the KAA’s agenda,” reads Mantashe’s answering affidavit.

“[T]he applicant’s expressed views, in whichever capacity they were made, evidenced that he had allowed himself to be caught in a conflict of interests. His single-minded commitment to promote his own political views led to the ineluctable conclusion that he could not remain true to his neutral role as a director of the NNR,” reads the document.

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Becker was represented at the hearing by instructing attorney Andrew Dorer, senior counsel Geoff Budlender and junior advocate Mitchell de Beer. Budlender argued that Becker had been sacked not because of what he had done, but because of what the minister feared he would do when the board had to make a decision. 

“We say that is not misconduct. Misconduct is what you have done, not what someone fears you will do,” said Budlender.

David Borgström SC, who represented Mantashe, said Becker had indeed committed misconduct.

“[E]ven after you are appointed as a board member, supposedly while wearing your KAA hat, that does not entitle you to attack the very body on whose board you sit and to question its integrity and its discharge of its statutory obligations in public and that is what we say Mr Becker has done,” said Borgström.

“Becker has expressed himself in public on the safety of the operations of Koeberg and that is the very issue that will come before him if he is a member of the board, and therein lies the board’s view that he has committed misconduct and is not suitable to continue to be a member of the board,” he said.

“When I stand outside the board, I believe I’m still permitted to talk about Eskom, load shedding, expenses, best solutions, renewable energy,” Becker told Daily Maverick before his hearing. “When I go and sit on the board I’m working within the constraints of the board, which I understood fully.”

Becker said having people with a variety of opinions on a board is good for decision-making, and being pro- or anti-nuclear, as well as being involved in anti-nuclear action outside of the board, should not be grounds for dismissal, especially if that action is concerned with public safety. 

“Not once in any board meeting did I say, ‘I think nuclear is bad’, because that’s not the role of the board. It’s, ‘here’s an application, is it safe, does it meet the safety requirements?’ It’s true that someone who is unconvinced that nuclear power is a good idea is going to be very thorough when looking at whether an application satisfies all the requirements or not and you might say someone who is in favour of nuclear power would be a little more lenient. So, what makes sense is to have a board made up of diverse people, with diverse opinions, so these things can be debated,” said Becker.

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