Cape Town - The chairman of Parliament’s energy oversight committee is to write to Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson to request all documents related to nuclear procurement by October 11, after she refused to release them on the basis that they were “sensitive”.
This comes after a legal opinion sought by another parliamentary committee confirmed that it had the right in terms of the National Assembly rules to “summon any person to produce any document it requires in carrying out its functions”.
Fikile Majola (ANC), chairperson of the energy oversight committee, said he didn’t even need to read the legal opinion to agree it was in line with the constitution.
He was responding to a request from DA MP Gordon Mackay that, in light of the legal opinion, he write to Joemat-Pettersson and demand the documents.
In a written reply to a request from Mackay earlier this month, Joemat-Pettersson refused to provide a number of key documents related to nuclear procurement.
These included the Integrated Nuclear Infrastructure review by the International Atomic Energy Agency; terms of reference for the National Nuclear Energy Executive Co-ordinating Committee (NNEECC); the phased decision-making approach of the NNEECC for implementing the government’s nuclear programme; and a 2004 bilateral international agreement with the Russian Federation.
“It should be noted that it cannot be expected of any responsible government to release sensitive cabinet records and communication between two sovereign states in such a manner,” Joemat-Pettersson said.
Referring to the specific documents, she said they could not be disclosed because “the document requested is privileged as it is a sensitive state document of government, and the release thereof could compromise the new build process”.
She also referred to an application by environmental NGOs to set aside a cabinet determination authorising nuclear procurement, saying this rendered the documents sub judice.
But Majola said the National Assembly rules provided a mechanism for the committee to deal with confidential documents, which gave the chairperson of the committee, and not the minister, the authority to determine what should be kept from public view, and how.
“We will have to ask for the documents. We will go through legal advice to see which of the documents can be dealt with by the committee differently, not which of the documents will not be seen by the committee,” Majola said.
He committed to write to Joemat-Pettersson immediately, requesting that the department furnish the committee with all the documents.