Efforts by media lawyers to obtain access to documents relating to former National Intelligence Agency boss Billy Masetlha amounted to a ”fishing expedition”, a Constitutional Court judge said on Wednesday.
”With respect, does this not come close to a fishing expedition?” Judge Dikgang Moseneke told advocate Gilbert Marcus, representing Independent Newspapers.
Lawyers and senior editors of Independent Newspapers are seeking access to restricted parts of documents relating to Masetlha’s dismissal by President Thabo Mbeki.
The documents include Masetlha’s in-camera affidavit, an 11-page report by the inspector general of intelligence as well as a letter from Masetlha to Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils.
”We are seeking information to enable us to determine whether or not the minister’s claims to classification [of parts of the documents as restricted] are potentially spurious,” said Marcus.
Moseneke expressed concern that the case would ”open the door to wholesale litigation around classification”.
Lawyers for the minister said the case had no legal precedence.
”We can find no case … in which lawyers and their clients are given access to classified information for the purpose of making their case,” said David Unterhalter.
The underlying matter before the Constitutional Court is Masetlha’s attempt to overturn a Pretoria High Court ruling upholding his dismissal. — Sapa