The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) on Thursday set aside the awarding of a four-billion-rand (about 266 million U.S. dollars) nuclear tender to a French company.

The SCA based its ruling on the fact that the bidding process was procedurally unfair.

The decision by state-run electricity utility Eskom to award the tender to Avera, a French multinational group specializing in nuclear and renewable energy, was based on irrelvant criteria, the court said.

The SCA found that there was no rational basis for awarding the tender to Areva when the preferred bidder was in fact Westinghouse, a US-based nuclear power company.

Instead the tender was awarded citing "strategic considerations", a smokescreen for political interference, the court maintained.

The court made the ruling after President Jacob Zuma announced his decision Wednesday evening to sack Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene in a move that shocked the whole nation.

It is widely believed that Nene was fired for political reasons which included his reluctance to fund the one trillion rand (67.1 billion dollars) nuclear programme, a controversial project advocated by the government.

Opponents to the nuclear program maintain that the project is unaffordable and ill-advised.

The court's decision drew applause from the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA).

The ruling vindicates the view long held by the DA that there is large-scale corruption in the awarding of Eskom tenders, said Gordon Mackay, DA Shadow Minister of Energy.

All contracts for the nuclear project should be awarded on the basis on economic, technological and environmental considerations in the interests of fiscal prudence and value for money - not on the basis of political considerations, Mackay said.

Source: Xinhua News Agency