Statement By The Republic Of South Africa Delivered By Mr Zizamele Smodeni Mbambo, Deputy Director-General

STATEMENT BY THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA DELIVERED BY MR ZIZAMELE SMODENI MBAMBO, DEPUTY DIRECTOR-GENERAL FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICITY AND ENERGY OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA, AT THE 70TH REGULAR SESSION OF THE GENERAL CONFERENCE (GC) OF THE INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY (IAEA), ON 16 SEPTEMBER 2026, IN VIENNA, AUSTRIA

Mr President,

Director General,

Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen,

The Republic of South Africa is honoured to address the 70th Regular Session of the General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

At the outset, South Africa congratulates you, Mr President, on your appointment and assures you of our full support. We also express our sincere appreciation to Director General, Dr Rafael Mariano Grossi, and the Secretariat for their continued leadership in advancing the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. We also take this opportunity to welcome the membership of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste as the IAEA’s one-hundred-and-eighty-second Member State.

This General Conference takes place following the third (3rd) consecutive Review Conference (RevCon) of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which concluded without consensus on an outcome document. Despite this, the eleventh (11th) NPT RevCon brought critical issues to light, including the essential role of safeguards, the challenges of their implementation during conflicts, and the unconditional right of member states to access peaceful applications of nuclear technology. South Africa firmly reiterates its commitment to its NPT obligations and hopes this General Conference will deliver actionable steps to harness nuclear technology for sustainable development.

As the Agency celebrates its 70th anniversary, we reaffirm our commitment to the objectives of the IAEA Statute to strengthen global cooperation in nuclear safety, security, and safeguards and the peaceful application of nuclear science and technology towards the achievement of the SDGs.

This year marks a pivotal moment for South Africa’s domestic nuclear energy programme. During our hosting of the 2025 G20 Ministerial Conference, we welcomed the official visit of Director General Grossi. The IAEA delivered a report entitled “Coal to Nuclear: Supporting a Clean Energy Transition—South Africa”. This report provides an important technical foundation for countries seeking to transition from carbon-intensive energy systems to cleaner energy while supporting industrial development, ensuring socio-economic well-being of the population, strengthening energy security, and meeting climate commitments.

Building on this momentum, South Africa adopted its Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) in October 2025, which establishes nuclear energy as a core component of our future energy mix and provides a roadmap for building 5,200 MW of new nuclear power generation capacity by 2039. In line with IRP 2025 policy directive, South Africa is developing a Nuclear Industrialisation Plan to scale up to a 10,000 MW nuclear power programme. This will create an opportunity to rebuild South Africa’s broader nuclear industrial capability, including nuclear skills, manufacturing, fuel-cycle capabilities, research and development, localisation, and participation in the international nuclear value chain. We highly appreciate the IAEA’s continuous technical support in strengthening our national capabilities to implement this programme. We also welcome growing international cooperation, highlighted by the Memorandum of Understanding between South Africa and the IAEA on implementing our Nuclear Industrialisation Plan, alongside transparent engagements on viable, sustainable financing frameworks.

South Africa has also taken significant strides in advanced technologies. Following the Cabinet’s decision to revive the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) Programme, the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa) has initiated an Expression of Interest process to engage domestic and international partners in Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) and Generation IV technologies.

Beyond electricity, South Africa continues to expand nuclear science applications in health, water management, agriculture, environment, and academic research. To maximize efficiency, efforts are underway to harmonize our regulatory frameworks overseeing nuclear technology in medical diagnostics and cancer care. As a designated IAEA Rays of Hope Anchor Centre, Nuclear Medicine Research Infrastructure (NuMeRI) continues to transform regional cancer care by advancing radiotheranostics, clinical imaging, targeted therapies, and specialized medical training.

Furthermore, South Africa, through the NRF-iThemba LABS, supports the Agency’s capacity-building and scientific research efforts by providing African researchers with access to state-of-the-art accelerator facilities, within the framework of the IAEA Coordinated Research Projects. Through the support of the technical cooperation, South Africa has made significant progress in the use of the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) as a vector for reducing the number of malaria-carrying mosquitoes in my country, in order to reduce infection rates and prevent the terrible impact of malaria on our people.

South Africa is pleased that through the collaborative efforts of Member States and the private sector, the project to renovate the nuclear applications laboratories at Seibersdorf (ReNuAL) has now been completed in 2025.

We take this opportunity to commend the IAEA for the significant achievements through the VETLAB Network, the IAEA’s flagship project for the strengthening of veterinary laboratory capacity across Africa and Asia to detect, characterize, and respond rapidly to transboundary animal diseases and zoonoses. These achievements include enabling the early detection and management of major animal and zoonotic disease outbreaks, including avian influenza, African swine fever, and Rift Valley fever. We call on Member States and development partners to continue supporting the VETLAB, which is both an investment towards the laboratories, but also contributes towards prevention, resilience, and global health security.

During 2026, South Africa hosted four (4) vital IAEA missions: the SALTO-RR Mission assessing the long-term safe operation of our SAFARI-1 Research Reactor; the imPACT Mission that provided strategic recommendations to scale up national cancer control; the EduTA Mission that evaluated our nuclear education and workforce development frameworks; and the INSSP Review Mission on National Nuclear Security Detection Strategy at our ports of entry. South Africa is fully committed to implementing the recommendations from these missions to ensure the sustainable, secure development of our nuclear infrastructure.

Furthermore, South Africa is progressing steadily with the Multipurpose Research Reactor (MPR) Programme, a strategic investment that will complement SAFARI-1 and reinforce South Africa’s position as a global leader in the production of life-saving medical radioisotopes.

Concurrently, to ensure the safe, secure, and cost-effective management of high-level nuclear waste, South Africa is establishing an away-from-reactor Centralised Interim Storage Facility (CISF) by 2030, directly aligning with our commitments under the Joint Convention.

In closing, Mr President, the IAEA’s Technical Cooperation Programme remains the bedrock enabling developing countries to harness nuclear science in support of the Sustainable Development Goals. We call for continued political support and sufficient, assured, and predictable funding to ensure no country is left behind.

We reaffirm our commitment to working hand-in-hand with the Agency to shape the next generation of peaceful nuclear innovation for Africa and the world.

Thank you.