Premier ordered to reveal all

2008-05-29 21:11

Grahamstown - A High Court judge ordered Eastern Cape Premier Nosimo Balindlela on Thursday to release the full version of a survey of service delivery in the province.

The Public Service Accountability Monitor (Psam), which brought the application, said the survey had been withheld from the public since it was completed in mid-2006.

The 882-page rapid assessment of service delivery, based on a survey of more than 12 000 households, was commissioned by the premier and produced by the Fort Hare institute of docial and economic research.

Psam said it took the matter to the High Court after the province's director-general and Balindlela refused to release the report on the grounds that it was "primarily an internal planning document" and that it was incomplete until factored into "the relevant plans of departments and municipalities".

In the public interest

They claimed problems raised in the survey "could be sensationalised in the media".

Psam said it had argued that detailed and up-to-date information on the impact of service delivery in the province, as well as the views and perceptions of citizens on these issues, were in the public interest.

Judge Elna Revelas said in her ruling that the province had not explained why its fear of media mischief was justified or so serious as to warrant non-disclosure of information "which, by its nature, belongs in the public domain".

"Our history has had many examples of just how the non-disclosure of the views of citizens of this country served as a catalyst to destroy, let alone inhibit, candid debate on problems which concerned all," she said.

- SAPA