In South Africa, media ask court to open trial over R12 million — Daily Maverick
In Pretoria, South Africa, Media24, Daily Maverick, amaBhungane and the Campaign for Free Expression have filed an urgent application with the Gauteng High Court. They are asking to amend a court order that, according to the applicants, was applied as a blanket ban on the press and public attending the criminal trial of former South African State Security Agency officials Thulani “Silence” Dlomo and Patrick Mshatola. They are accused of the alleged misappropriation of R12 million, Daily Maverick reports.
Challenge to closed proceedings
The applicants are challenging the October 14 order, which restricts access to evidence in the case. In their view, the document does not provide for the closure of the entire trial, but it was applied as a complete ban on the public and media attending. The media groups say that three days of hearings may already have taken place without public access.
The application was prompted by an incident on October 16, when News24 journalist Kyle Cowan was denied entry to the courtroom after seats for the public had been vacated. During a break, he received a copy of the order, but state representatives refused to provide the application on which it was issued, citing the presence of classified information in the document.
The media insist that open proceedings should be the general rule. If a party to the proceedings wishes to restrict access to specific evidence on national security grounds, it must file a separate substantiated application, and media representatives must be able to respond to it.
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Proposed access procedure
The applicants propose holding closed hearings only for specific testimony or documents if the court determines that their disclosure is likely to cause harm. As an alternative, they propose allowing protected State Security Agency witnesses to testify under pseudonyms or behind protective screens.
The media groups also want the parties to identify, within five court days, specific portions of transcripts from already closed hearings that require protection. They propose making the remaining parts accessible after removing data that could identify protected persons. For documents sealed under the October 14 order, a 10-court-day period is proposed for filing an application to further restrict access.
Essence of the criminal case
Dlomo headed the State Security Agency’s Special Operations Directorate from 2012 to 2017, while Mshatola worked there as an investigator and later as a project manager. The charges concern Operation Project Mayibuye in 2015: according to the prosecution, R12 million was obtained through three temporary cash advances linked to an alleged contract with Korolo Investment Holdings.
The indictment alleges that the contract and invoices were fraudulent, and that the company had no contract with the State Security Agency and received no payments. These allegations have not yet been proven in court, and both defendants are presumed innocent until their guilt is established by a verdict. The court has not yet ruled on the media groups’ application.
