US Losing out in Africa Projects at Critial Economic Times.

France and South Africa signed three economic accords Friday. French leader Nicolas Sarkozy was near the end of a two-day state visit to South Africa at the end of February. While the President of France has talks with Britain and the US, this was his first to an English-speaking country since he took office in France.

The energy accords were signed during a business conference in Cape Town between France and South Africa.

In a major part of the France-South Africa energy deal, French energy giant Alstom will build a 1.36 billion coal-fueled power plant in South Africa, where energy is in desperately short supply. South Africa’s electricity crisis has been called a national emergency by the government. South Africa is one of the few African nations with a booming economy, and it needs power for its many activities such as mining and manufacturing.

Bravo, the name of the planned French-constructed power station, will be erected in the northeastern Mpumalanga province and will have a capacity of 4,740 megawatts. Alstom of France signed the deal with Eskom, South Africa’s state power utility, with the President of France and South African chief Thabo Mbeki looking on.

The second contract between the French Development Agency and Eskom was worth 100 million euros and will fund new power-generating wind turbines. A third deal, between the South African government and French nuclear giant Areva, will provide professional training. The apartheid regime that ended in 1994 kept the country black majority uneducated and most lack the skills training necessary to work in nuclear energy.

The French company Areva is bidding against the U.S.’s Westinghouse to construct up to 12 nuclear reactors between now and 2025 in South Africa, whose government has not awarded the contract to either yet. South Africa sees nuclear power as its best chance to solve its energy crisis in the future. Sarkozy voiced his strong ambitions for France to win all the coal and nuclear power plant contracts up for grabs in South Africa.

The energy accords were only the latest in a sweeping list of relationship-changing initiatives put forth by the President of France during his South African visit. Many other agreements covering energy, transport, science and tourism were also signed by France and South Africa. French leader Sarkozy further discussed overhauling France’s participation with South Africa in the areas of defense, democracy and human rights.

The President of France stressed that France’s relationship with South Africa, never a colony of France, should serve as a model for the West’s new relationships Africa countries. Carla Bruni, Sarkozy’s new bride, visited an employment project for women in the poor township of Khayelitsha, and joined him at a visit to an AIDS clinic. Bruni also met Wednesday with wives of disappeared Chad opposition leaders.
France’s President arrived in South Africa after a brief stop in Chad, a former French colony that has seen almost ten years of turmoil and never yet enjoyed true democracy.