OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Tuesday 7.30pm
THE Constitutional Court on Tuesday announced it has decided that it will not hear an appeal by the Mail & Guardian and the Freedom of Expression Institute to access military intelligence reports against two South African National Defence Force officials.
In a unanimous judgment, delivered by judge Pius Langa, the court ruled that a new Defence Act and code, which came into effect in May, has left the appeal without a practical purpose.
The new Act provides for a new military court system which replaces the military court and the court martial established in terms of previous legislation. This effectively, Langa ruled, means that the basis on which the parties had approached the high court has disappeared and the relief claimed will serve no practical purpose.
The case — which challenged the Defence Act of 1957 and provisions of the Military Discipline Code under which a court martial is performed — was brought against the Ministry of Defence after the M & G published an article in 1996 detailing allegations of racism in the SANDF.
The charges arose from a military intelligence report compiled by Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Ricketts, who had been instructed to gather counter-intelligence at Staff Sergeant Gordon Pheiffer and Corporal Dawid Booysen’s unit.
His report, labelled “secret”, contained amoung other things, information from Pheiffer and Booyen concerning assaults on black troops by three lieutenants and racist behaviour by SANDF officers. It was shown to their commanding officer who decided they would be charged and court martialed.
The presiding officer at the court martial, Lieutenant Colonel Mardon, declared the proceedings would be held in camera, that the entire proceedings be classified as secret and that the record of the court martial be classified secret.