Thread by @AntonHarber

So here's the story of High Court judge DS Molefe who stopped the publication of a State Security Agency (SSA) report, but won't release the judgement. A🧵

IOL reporter Thabo Makwakwa got his hands on a leaked SSA 'secret' report headed "US interest in ANC party dynamics" with information about contacts between the embassy and ANC people. The SSA went to court to get an urgent order to stop publication.

IOL argued that the report had nothing that was not already in the public domain and was "not worth of a secret classification". The report, they said, was disturbing because it appeared that the SSA was unlawfully "issuing orders to the government ...

...to take steps regarding the factional dispute within the ANC". The SSA had no business being involved in party political issues and this needed to be reported in the public interest. SSA was granted its order and the report was suppressed.

They went back to court to have this urgent order confirmed and won a permanent ban on the report last week. The reporter was ordered to return all copies of the report. And IOL have to pay costs.

The written judgement was not released. When I heard about this, I phoned the Judge's secretary to get it. She told me she had been told not to release it. I have never heard of a court judgement not being released. This goes against the most fundamental rules of open justice.

If there was something in it that threatened national security, it could be redacted. But for a court order to be secret is extraordinary and very worrying, particularly when it is banning the reporting of something that may be in the public interest.

Lawyer Dario Milo and his Webber Wentzel team wrote a letter on our behalf, formally asking for the judgement, redacted if necessary. Five days later and we have had no answer. We have written now to the Judge President.

The judge's order is an act of censorship. How can we judge if it was justified in the national interest if we don't even have the order?

We know the SSA has crossed the line in recent years in factional party issues. If there is any suggestion that they are going back to this, we need to know. This is dangerous.

So watch this space. If the court ruling is not released, we will have to take steps to force it into the public arena. We cannot risk SSA's interference in party politics.