Media barred from PetroSA briefing into R14.5bn loss

Cape Town – Members of the public and the media had to leave a Parliamentary meeting empty-handed where the forensic report on PetroSA was going to be discussed.

Fikile Majola, Chairperson of the portfolio committee on energy told the media to leave the room so that MPs can receive a briefing from Parliament’s legal adviser about whether the meeting could take place in camera.

PetroSA’s board and the Department of Energy were expected to give detailed responses on the contents of a forensic report on the entity’s R14.5bn impairment incurred in the 2014/15 financial year.

The impairment was by and large caused by Project Ikhwezi which entailed the drilling of offshore wells to find more gas supplies for the Mossgas refinery. The project fell short of yielding the anticipated 242bn cubic feet of gas and instead only delivered 25bn cubic feet.

Majola wanted to keep the reports under wraps from the outset, as it “contained commercially sensitive information”.

DA MP Pieter van Dalen, however, wrote a letter to Cedric Frolick, House Chairperson of the National Assembly Committees, to request that the meeting be open to the media and the public.

Majola told MPs on Tuesday that Frolick informed him it was up to the committee to decide whether the meeting should be open to the public, or not.