The public’s right to know about possible security problems with the new electronic traffic information system (eNaTIS) outweighed confidentiality concerns over the information, the Pretoria High Court found on Tuesday.
Judge Dion Basson dismissed with costs an application by Transport Minister Jeff Radebe to interdict Beeld newspaper from publishing a story on security problems with eNaTIS.
He dismissed the arguments of Radebe’s counsel, Pat Ellis, SC, that by publishing the story Beeld would put confidential information on security gaps in the old NaTIS and the new eNaTIS into the public domain, which could then be misused.
”Heaven forbid car-theft syndicates use the information to break into the system to cover up their crimes,” Ellis said.
Basson found that the information Beeld had obtained from a leaked management report by the Auditor General on a network audit of the old NaTIS system highlighted ”mainly failures of management”.
This was the argument of advocate Sias Reyneke, SC, on behalf of Media24, which owns Beeld, who said the newspaper planned to write about the ”maladministration and poor governance” that led to the security gaps. ”It is not because the system is designed that way; it is because it is not managed, it is because there is no governance of the systems,” he told the court.
He said the Auditor General report highlighted ”weak passwords and password policies” and ”access by users to powerful utility files and even blank passwords allowing anyone to access the system”.
Reyneke argued that the Department of Transport had known about the security problems since February when the Auditor General’s report highlighted them — and probably longer — but nothing was done to fix them. ”The press should not be blamed for blowing the whistle on the maladministration and poor governance,” he said.
‘Minor setback’
Following the court’s verdict, Director General of Transport Mpumi Mpofu told reporters outside court she believes that eNaTIS is now safe. She called the ruling against the department ”a minor setback” and said it will study the judgement before considering further action.
Beeld‘s editor, Peet Kruger, who also attended proceedings, said he was ”elated” by the verdict. ”I think this finding of the court says to the DG [director general] that she should take the public in her confidence and tell us what they are doing to fix the problems with eNaTIS.”
He said it is of concern that the media have to defend more and more interdict applications in court.
”Eventually one should hope that government gets the message that they are wasting taxpayers’ money … I think it’s unfair that we [taxpayers] should pick up the tab. We should tell them that they should stop dealing with the press in this way,” he 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.
On Wednesday, Kruger called on Transport Minister Jeff Radebe to spend his time and resources rectifying problems presented by eNaTIS rather than trying to silence his newspaper. He said the contents of Beeld‘s latest story on the issue was clearly of great public interest.
He said the system of putting eNaTIS into operation was clearly a big failure with a negative effect 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.
Failure predicted
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.
The Department of Transport’s attempt to prevent the newspaper from publishing its story 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.