DA calls for probe into suspect fuel sale
The DA has asked President Cyril Ramaphosa to institute a Special Investigating Unit investigation into the suspect sale of 10-million barrels of strategic fuel stock in 2015 and 2016 by the Strategic Fuel Fund.
The DA has asked President Cyril Ramaphosa to institute a Special Investigating Unit (SIU) investigation into the suspect sale of 10-million barrels of strategic fuel stock in 2015 and 2016 by the Strategic Fuel Fund (SFF).
It has also made an application under the Promotion of Access to Information Act for access to a report by international law firm Allen & Overy on the sale of the stocks at rockbottom prices to three companies in December 2015 and January 2016.
This follows the revelation by Energy Minister David Mahlobo in Parliament on Tuesday that a new investigation was necessary because the Allen & Overy inquiry did not go far enough and did not include interviews with those allegedly involved.
DA energy spokesman Gavin Davis said it was not appropriate for a minister to institute an inquiry and then have control over its findings. “We need an independent statutory body to investigate so that we can get to the truth,” said Davis.
The issue of the sale was sufficiently large to justify an SIU probe, he said, while getting access to the Allen & Overy report would make it possible to determine the real reasons for Mahlobo’s dismissal of it.
Davis said it appeared the Allen & Overy report had been with the executive for months.
In October the Sunday Times reported on the basis of a leaked copy of the report that Allen & Overy had found the sale of the oil was concluded without the required concurrence from Treasury, the SFF’s board and a special resolution by the SFF’s parent company, the Central Energy Fund.
The firm also found that SFF executives had liaised directly with former energy minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson instead of going through its own board.
Allen & Overy said this week its report was conducted according to Joemat-Pettersson’s instructions and added that Mahlobo’s version of the process was incorrect.