Masi Losi

Public Protector Thuli Madonsela

Repeated snubbing of formal requests under the Promotion of Access to Information Act (Paia) was to be discussed yesterday at a meeting between Department of Mineral Resources legal officials and the non-governmental Centre for Environmental Rights.

The centre says a “significant majority” of Paia requests has been “simply ignored”.

“In our experience, the DMR is… accepting a processing fee but in most cases is taking no steps to process requests or appeals, fundamentally undermining the provisions of Paia and the constitutional right to information,” said centre attorney Dina Townsend.

Daily News sister paper the Cape Argus recently approached the Public Protector to investigate why the department had failed to acknowledge or respond to its Paia application for details of the fracking task team.

The Observatory-based Centre for Environmental Rights is a non-profit, independent institution part-funded by the Open Society Foundation. It provides legal support to non-governmental and community-based groups in the environmental and environmental justice sectors.

It has been particularly active in helping groups respond to mining and mineral exploration applications.

Townsend said that in the past year, the centre had submitted 37 requests for information to the department (see box above), and 19 appeals in respect of applications that had been refused. It had not had a decision in respect of any of these appeals.

She said a distinction had to be drawn between actual refusals and deemed refusals in response to Paia requests. No response to an application was a “deemed refusal” and the centre was entitled to appeal.

“However, we have not yet had a single decision in respect of any of the appeals submitted to the department.

“Again in terms of Paia, this is understood to mean the appeal has been unsuccessful and the requester has no choice but to proceed to court.

“By simply failing to pro-cess requests, the department has rendered the most basic information wholly inaccessible to the public as it is impossible for any requester to proceed to court in respect of every request for information.”

The centre arranged a meeting today with the department’s legal services branch to discuss the issue,

Centre executive director Melissa Fourie said she would be happy if the department encouraged mining companies to provide documentation directly, instead of discouraging them from doing so.

Permits, in particular, should be public documents, she argued.

“Departments like the DMR need to reconsider the information they make available voluntarily, so that we can eliminate the administrative burden and cost.”

The Department of Mineral Resources has been asked to comment.