Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry rebuts media claims
6 Mar 2012
The Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry would like to reply to a story which appeared in a Cape Town-based newspaper on Wednesday, 29 February 2012 last week.
Under a headline "Late move to stifle questions on arms deal", the article in the Cape Times created a false impression that the Committee was intent on covering up what the paper described as "arms deal offsets scandal" (see here). The Committee rejects such allegations with the contempt they deserve. It must be noted that Parliament has its processes, procedures, rules and regulations. Therefore, there is a legal framework within which the institution of Parliament operates.
As a matter of background, Committee Chairperson Ms Joanmariae Fubbs received from Member of Parliament Mr David Maynier three pages of what could be at least a 66-page report. This report reflects at the top of every page that it is "Privileged and Confidential; Attorney work product; Attorney - Client Communication; Confidential - EU Personal data". According to legal advice, this privilege belongs to the client and can only be waived by the client. It is not clear from the document who the client is.
National Assembly rules 157(1) and (4)(b) provide that a document that is protected under a privilege law may be placed before the Committee as a confidential document, and if the document is then declared to be confidential by the Committee, it may not be published nor its content disclosed. So the legal advice is that the document in its entirety be treated as confidential. This decision is in keeping with the rules of the National Assembly. This is also within the parameters of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa.
Finally, it would have been constructive if the journalist who wrote the story had contacted Ms Fubbs for comment. The Chairperson's name was mentioned twice in the article. One of the basic tenets of journalism is to get comment from all people who are subjects in the story. It must be pointed out that the journalist in question has since apologised for the error (of not seeking Ms Fubbs' comment).
Statement issued by Mr Cedric Mboyisa, Parliamentary Communication Services, Parliament of South Africa, March 6 2012
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