[miningmx.com] — “PUBLIC interest demands that this case be concluded speedily. I am sitting with a crying baby on my lap’
On Tuesday this is how Judge NF Kgomo closed the hearing of Sake24’s court application against Eskom and BHP Billiton.
He undertook to deliver his verdict within three weeks.
Sake24 specialist reporter Jan de Lange has asked the court to force Eskom to disclose, in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (Paia), the pricing formula according to which it delivers about 5.7% of its electricity supply to two of Billiton’s aluminium smelters – Hillside in Richards Bay and Mozal in Mozambique.
He also wanted to know the duration of the contracts and who had signed them on behalf of the parties concerned.
Advocate Kameshni Pillay, for the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, asked the court for an extension so that the minister could present more comprehensive submissions on the constitutionality of various sections of the Paia.
The minister is responsible for the administration of this act.
Pillay, who shortly before the beginning of the hearing received instruction to appear for the minister, said the minister had not given any cogent reason why the constitutionality issues had not received attention earlier.
This issue was the “big white elephant’ in the court room, he said.
Advocate Stephen Budlender argued that extension would prejudice De Lange and Media24 and that the minister had had sufficient opportunity to put his case properly.
Kgomo undertook to deal with this request in his verdict.
