The DA has today submitted an application to Multichoice in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) to request the full report it relied on for terminating its contract with Gupta-owned ANN7.
The report compiled by MultiChoice’s Audit and Risk Committee must be made available to the public in the interest of openness and transparency, and in particular, to reveal the full details about why and how the payments were made to the Gupta-owned ANN7.
The public deserves to know the full truth.
Instead of providing substantial answers, Multichoice’s press briefing on Wednesday left the public with more questions than answers.
If Multichoice has nothing to hide, it will willingly make this document public.
Only the full truth will get Multichoice out of this mess. We need to know what “mistakes” were made, why no one is being held accountable and whether the money of those who are DSTV subscribers may have been used to grease Gupta palms.
As it is clear that Multichoice has thus far declined to make the report public, the DA will now rely on the law to compel it to do so. The DA has submitted the PAIA application in terms of two sections of the Act namely:
- Section 50 which states that: “[a] requester must be given access to any record of a private body if (a) that record is required for the exercise or protection of any rights”.
- Section 70 which states that: “the head of a private body must grant a request for access to a record of the body contemplated in section 63 (1), 64 (1), 65, 66(a) or (b), 67, 68 (1) or 69 (1) or (2) if (a) the disclosure of the record would reveal evidence of (i) a substantial contravention of, or failure to comply with, the law; or (ii) imminent and serious public safety or environmental risk; and (b) the public interest in the disclosure of the record clearly outweighs the harm contemplated in the provision in question”.
The DA also eagerly awaits a response from Multichoice. One, we trust, that will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.