Defence minister refuses to comment on flights, Sanef voices concerns

Minister Sisulu has refused to answer questions about the planes that 'shadowed' Zuma's flight to the US. She referred questioners to a previous answer she had supplied which stated that information about flight schedules for the "president and other principles" was "confidential" due to "safety considerations" and that the information "cannot be in the public domain".

Sisulu has also refused to answer questions about faults that developed in the aircraft in which deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe was a passenger resulting in a forced landing on one occasion and he having to abort a visit to a foreign country on another.

Defends refusal to answer

Sisulu has defended her refusal to answer these important questions on the basis that the information is classified.

Sanef points out that information about flights by the former president Thabo Mbeki were supplied openly in Parliament without any reference to security or classification.

It maintained in its opposition to the bill that classification provisions should apply only to state security matters defined extremely narrowly. Such treatment should be scrupulously applied to Defence Ministry information.

Call to stop raising barriers

The forum calls on the Defence minister and her colleagues in government to stop raising barriers against informing the public about important matters of public interest and to pursue the constitutional aims of an open and transparent society.

Sanef also fears that in the current environment of the government aspiring to cloak its operations in secrecy, the Defence minister's questionable application of the constitution may inspire other ministers to invent parliamentary rules to enable their reports, or parts of them, to be kept secret.