here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\nIn awarding the costs order, Judge Tati Makgoka of the high court in Pretoria described the DoD\u2019s delays and failures to respond as \u201cunpardonable\u2019\u201d and \u201cunconscionable\u201d.<\/p>\n
Makgoka said the objectives of PAIA should be borne in mind: \u201cAmong those, is to afford the public a simple and inexpensive mechanism of obtaining information held by public bodies. Clearly, that objective has been frustrated in this case.\u201d<\/p>\n
Setting out the four-year history of amaBhungane\u2019s efforts to engage with the DoD, the judge wrote: \u201cThe objectives of PAIA should be borne in mind. Among those, is to afford the public a simple and inexpensive mechanism of obtaining information held by public bodies. Clearly, that objective has been frustrated in this case.\u201d<\/p>\n
Makgoka noted that amaBhungane had been quick off the mark following the Waterkloof landing, requesting documents related to the landing of the Gupta and any other private aircraft at the base.<\/p>\n
The requested information included aircraft registration details, passenger lists, authorisations, correspondence regarding these landings, dates of arrivals and departures, and flight plans.<\/p>\n
Makgoka wrote: \u201cThe request, it must be borne in mind, was made approximately thirteen days after the landing of the Gupta chartered airline at the Waterkloof Airforce Base. That matter, a very controversial one indeed, had generated considerable public interest \u2013 the
\nlanding itself, and how government, in particular the Ministry of Defence, responded to it.<\/p>\n
\u201cTherefore, when the information was sought at that time, the controversy generated by it was still very much in the public space. Now, four years later, as Mr Budlender, counsel for the applicants put it, ‘the delay means that the information has lost a considerable amount of currency’.\u201d<\/p>\n
Makgoka lambasted the department for its tardiness. \u201cI gain a distinct view that
\nthe respondents were unresponsive at best, and obstructionist, at worst. I accept that
\nsome latitude should be given to state departments given the obvious and inevitable
\nbureaucratic bottle-necks. Having said that, a delay of eight months to simply acknowledge a simple request is unpardonable.<\/p>\n
“A delay of more than eighteen months before a decision is made, is unconscionable. To aggravate matters, the [DoD] without any explanation, conceded to the applicants’ relief on the eve of the hearing\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven all the above considerations, and in particular the conduct of the respondents, and the fact that the applicants conduct investigative journalism, which is pivotal to a vibrant democracy, a punitive costs order is warranted.\u201d<\/p>\n
The DoD has asked for time to declassify the documents to be provided, and it remains to be seen what it will deliver.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, amaBhungane regards this as a victory important both for journalistic purposes and to strengthen transparency and accountability in the defence sector, and curbing unnecessary litigation in PAIA matters.<\/p>\n
AmaBhungane was represented by advocates Steven Budlender and Mabasa Sibanda instructed by Webber Wentzel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Judge Tati Makgoka of the high court in Pretoria described the DoD\u2019s delays and failures to respond as \u201cunpardonable\u2019\u201d and \u201cunconscionable\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20370,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advocacy"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}