So a state-owned corporation (PetroSA/CEF) is seeking a deal whereby South Africa will be obliged to buy gas from an entity that is 65% owned by a Russian company?
While there are fundamental flaws in the assumption/argument that extending our dependence on fossil fuels (concentrated energy) is necessary/desirable for energy security, it still prevails in  national energy development and policy discourse. Enthusiasm for increasing the role of natural gas in our energy mix is largely premised the assumption that it will come mostly from 'our' domestic resources.
While avoiding bankruptcy of PetroSA by attracting an equity partner may make sense to its board, there's no indication of how the deal might on balance benefit the nation, even if large quantities of relatively easily-extracted gas are actually found.
Seems "path dependency" on concentrated energy is taken as license both for selling off national resources (with associated elite enrichment) and further lock-in to fossil fuels.