BY ROB ROSE,
03 SEPTEMBER 2015, 06:48

While government remains coy about how much the Gupta family earned for flying deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa to Japan last week, the family’s 64%-owned Oakbay Resources is hoping to make a killing from nuclear energy.

This week, Oakbay released its annual report, in which chairman Atul Gupta argued that nuclear energy is the way to go. A hike in nuclear demand would boost Oakbay, whose main asset is Shiva Uranium, 165km southwest of Johannesburg, which it bought in 2010 and revived.

Gupta said even though uranium isn’t well understood in SA, countries like China, Russia and Brazil are powering ahead with nuclear plans.

“Nuclear energy is the key to meeting the exponentially increasing [global] energy demand over the next 20 years with clean power,” he said.

Gupta said Oakbay was “in the ideal growth market and uranium is the place to be”.

This comes in the context of a debate in SA about whether the cost of building nuclear plants — which some estimate will cost more than R1trillion — is justified. President Jacob Zuma said this year that SA will build 9 600 MW of nuclear generating capacity.

But critics say the cost isn’t justified in light of SA’s poor growth and new capacity from coal-fired power plants Medupi and Kusile.

But Oakbay argues that nuclear power is “the cheapest energy source available, even factoring in the high costs of (building) power stations”.

Oakbay listed on the JSE at R10,08/share in November, but its share price has swung alarmingly since. The stock climbed nearly 200% to R30 in less than a year, as traders were able to move the stock dramatically through small trades.

On May 18, the stock shot up 348% — from R11,15/share to R50/share — on one trade of a meagre R500.

This month George van der Merwe stepped down as CEO, making way for Atul Gupta’s nephew, Varun Gupta (28), to take over the top job.

In contrast to other mining companies, Oakbay’s directors were paid a pittance last year. Van der Merwe was paid R720 000, Varun Gupta got R669 000 and finance director Trevor Scott got only R372 000. Atul Gupta wasn’t paid anything.

This week, the furore over Ramaphosa’s state visit to Japan grew, with political parties calling for an urgent investigation into why he had flown on a Gupta jet. The defence department paid to lease the plane from ExecuJet, but refused to reveal the costs.

The Economic Freedom Fighters said that state institutions should investigate “the hold that the Gupta family has over President Zuma‚ which allows them to treat our country and its coffers the way they do”.

Critics have long questioned the relationship between the Guptas and Zuma. Zuma’s son Duduzane bought into Shiva back in 2010, and was a director of Oakbay until last year.

In April 2013, a plane chartered by the Guptas and carrying 270 of their wedding guests was allowed to land at the high-security Waterkloof air force base — a breach for which low-ranking officials were blamed.