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Judg
e Joos Hefer's public investigation into apartheid spying
allegations was postponed, for the second time, yesterday.
Journalist Ranjeni Munusamy, the third witness the judicial
commission intended to call, indicated that she would ask the high
court to protect her from testifying.
This came shortly after Hefer's decision that she must testify,
although with the option of objecting to answering certain
questions.
The judge's ruling came despite morning-long appeals by Munusamy's
advocate, John Campbell, and several media organisations that she
should not be forced to give evidence.
In a sworn affidavit handed in as evidence, Munusamy alleged that
her physical safety had been threatened more than once should she
reveal certain confidential sources.
The former Sunday Times writer had used these sources to compile a
newspaper report, which she leaked to the City Press after her own
editor refused to publish it. Allegations that National Director of
Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka was an agent for the apartheid
government first surfaced in this story.
After Campbell announced his intention to approach the high court
to review Hefer's decision, the judge adjourned the
proceedings.
By 2pm the parties were still locked in discussions to determine a
date before which the review application must be filed in the high
court, probably in Bloemfontein.
A member of Munusamy's legal team indicated they should be ready to
file by next week.
Other journalists the commission intended to call as witnesses may
now also refuse to testify pending the outcome of Munusamy's review
application.
Among them are City Press reporter Elias Maluleke and the editors
of both the City Press and the Sunday Times.
Veteran journalist Raymond Louw argued earlier on yesterday that
public trust in the media would be destroyed if journalists were
forced to testify.
"The public will adopt the view that this second role, that of
police informant, renders valueless media assertions that they
gather news and publish in the public interest".
Louw said in such a case a journalist's ostensible professional
role came to be seen as a cloak for a perceived role as informer
for the authorities.
He maintained that journalists should not be forced to testify,
provide information, hand over material or reveal their
confidential sources.
This would violate the constitutional rights to freedom of
expression and of the media.
It would have a "chilling effect" on journalists, making them
afraid to pursue controversial stories.
Louw's submission was made on behalf of the SA National Editors'
Forum, the Freedom of Expression Institute and the South African
chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa.
It was supported by the Media Workers' Association of South Africa,
the International Press Institute and the International Federation
of Journalists.
On Wednesday, ANC stalwart Mac Maharaj and foreign affairs official
Mo Shaik succeeded in getting their opening submissions before the
commission postponed to November 17.
They alleged that a seven-page-long list of apartheid-era documents
first had to be retrieved to support their evidence.
The two men are expected to be among the main witnesses to brought
in an attempt to confirm the spying allegations against Ngcuka, as
they had done in public statements in the past few months.
Hefer indicated yesterday that Munusamy's review application would
not stop the commission from proceeding in the mean time with the
rest of its public investigation. – Sapa.
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