The Department of Transport’s attempt to prevent Beeld newspaper from publishing a story about the controversial new electronic traffic information system (eNaTIS) was unconstitutional, the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) said on Wednesday.
”Sanef condemns the conduct of the department in first requesting time to respond and then making an application to court at a time that was seriously disruptive to the newspaper’s production and publishing routines,” it said in a statement.
The department brought an urgent interdict against Beeld to stop it from running a story about eNaTIS on Tuesday evening.
Beeld investigative reporter Adriaan Basson said the newspaper had got hold of a section of one of the Auditor General’s reports on eNaTIS and on Tuesday morning asked the department to comment on it. Instead of providing agreed-upon comment, the department then brought the application to halt the publication of the story.
”The report is specifically about the security of eNaTIS,” said Basson.
The department’s application to stop Beeld from running the report will be heard in the Pretoria High Court on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Beeld editor Peet Kruger called on Transport Minister Jeff Radebe to spend his time and resources rectifying problems presented by eNaTIS rather than trying to silence the media.
Kruger stressed that the contents of its latest story on the issue was clearly of great public interest.
Kruger said the system of putting eNaTIS into operation was clearly a big failure with a negative impact on the motor industry and for South Africans wanting to acquire or renew driver’s licences and vehicle licences.
”Instead of resolving the problem, the minister and the department are devoting their time to silencing the messenger,” he said.
‘High public interest’
Earlier in May, Beeld had revealed than a report by the Auditor General warned the Department in Transport in December last year that there was an 80% probability of failure if eNaTIS was implemented in one go. The Auditor General says it handed the report to Thabo Tsholetsane, chief executive of the Road Traffic Management Corporation, but the department and Minister of Transport Jeff Radebe have denied receiving the report.
Sanef said the department’s action on Tuesday was another attempt by an institution to use court processes to censor newspapers from publishing information that is in the public interest. ”Information about the failures of eNaTIS has become a matter of high public interest in view of the enormous financial losses that the system has incurred for the motor industry, motorists and other members of the public.”
The forum called on the judiciary to note the increase in institutions using judicial processes as a form of censorship, ”and to apply the constitutional injunction that the Bill of Rights applies to all law and binds the legislature, the executive, the judiciary and all organs of state”.
Meanwhile, the department said on Wednesday it was not trying to gag the press by bringing an interdict against Beeld. Rather, it wants to ”seek adherence to legislative requirements on how audit findings are dealt with before the final report is tabled in Parliament”, spokesperson Collen Msibi said.