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Beeld 'gag' to protect report
31/05/2007 22:13 - (SA)
Johannesburg - The Department of Transport says it did not want to "gag" Beeld newspaper, but believed the report on the eNatis system should not be made public until tabled in Parliament.
Department spokesperson Collen Msibi said on Thursday they respected the decision by Pretoria High Court not to prevent publication of the report.
The court dismissed an urgent application by Transport Minister Jeff Radebe to prevent publication.
It said the public's right to know about possible security problems with eNatis outweighed confidentiality concerns about the report.
"The department confirms that its intention to apply for an interdict against the Beeld newspaper was not for the purposes of 'gagging' that newspaper," said Msibi, adding that the department believed its decision to apply for the interdict was correct.
Report still to be tabled
He said the department "had an obligation to prevent the disclosure of sensitive information" in the network audit report on eNatis that could lead to security breaches on the system.
"The department sincerely and reasonably believed that parts of the management report in the possession of the Beeld may have contained sections publication of which may compromise the integrity of the system."
The report has not yet been tabled in Parliament.
Msibi said the department was "confident" that all system-security concerns raised in the report had been dealt with.
The audit was conducted in July 2006 when the eNatis system was still under development. The system was implemented last month.
"The audit therefore focused on the development environment that was substantially different than the production environment."
- SAPA
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