DA welcomes ruling on electricity contracts

The Democratic Alliance has welcomed a court ruling compelling Eskom to release documents on secret pricing deals agreed with BHP Billiton.

Judgement was delivered on Friday by the High Court in Johannesburg on an application brought by Media 24.

The judgement would hopefully improve Eskom's transparency, said DA spokesman Pieter van Dalen,

The DA suspected that BHP Billiton had received electricity at preferential rates, he said.

This meant that ordinary consumers would be indirectly subsidising BHP Billiton.

"This case sets a precedent that prohibits Eskom, or any other state institution, from using verbal confidentiality agreements as smokescreens to prevent the release of information that should be in the public domain," said Van Dalen.

He said the DA needed more information to determine whether Eskom had also entered into electricity supply agreements with neighbouring countries.

It had submitted a parliamentary question on the matter to Energy Minister Dipuo Peters, but was told that the information was "commercially sensitive" and could not be released.

Van Dalen said the DA would resubmit this question in the light of Friday's high court.

If necessary, it would follow up with an application under the Promotion of Access to Information Act, he said.