The newspaper obtained a report by the auditor-general about the efficacy of the system and approached the department for comment before publishing in accordance with accepted journalistic practice. This followed an earlier publication on 21 May 2007 of the auditor-general's views on the system.
According to Beeld, several hours after the department received the paper's request on Tuesday, 29 May, it asked to be allowed to reply on Wednesday, to which the paper agreed. Two hours later the paper was notified that the department had made an urgent application to the Pretoria High Court to prohibit the paper from publishing the auditor-general's information. The hearing was adjourned to Wednesday.
SANEF is concerned with the conduct of the department in first requesting time to respond and then making an application to court at a time that was seriously disruptive of the newspaper's production and publishing routines and likely to incur high legal costs, despite the agreement reached with the newspaper.
SANEF also deplores the fact that this is yet another example of institutions attempting to use court processes to censor newspapers from publishing information in the public interest. Information about the failures of the eNaTIS system has become a matter of high public interest in view of the enormous financial losses that the system has incurred for the motor industry, motorists and other members of the public.
SANEF supports Beeld in its defence of its position and its efforts to bring the information – clearly embarrassing to the department – to the attention of the public.
SANEF has also expressed its concern that as in previous similar cases, such as those brought against the Mail & Guardian to prevent publication, the judicial process is being used to circumvent the media freedom clauses in the Constitution and the Constitutional requirement that the “state must respect, protect, promote and fulfil the rights'' in the Constitution which includes media freedom.
It thus calls upon the judiciary to note the increasing use of this form of censorship and to apply the Constitutional injunction that the Bill of Rights applies to all law and binds the legislature, the executive, the judiciary and all organs of state.
