The national chairperson of ActionSA, Michael Beaumont, has warned that his party will take the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) to court if it fails to meet its deadline to release a report on the conduct of the presidential protection unit during the Phala Phala probe.

Beaumont said that after ActionSA’s initial application under the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) a month ago, IPID missed its first deadline and instead requested a 30-day extension.

This follows ActionSA’s PAIA application at the end of April, seeking to unseal IPID’s report on its involvement in the Phala Phala matter. The move came after the Public Protector found that members of the presidential protection unit had acted outside their legal mandate and abused their power during the probe into the Phala Phala theft.

Beaumont said the arbitrary classification of this report as ‘Top Secret’ was unlawful, as government policy only allows for such classification in circumstances limited to the outbreak of war or the loss of diplomatic ties.

In late May, after weeks of radio silence, ActionSA received a formal response from IPID indicating that they would extend the deadline for releasing the report. The reason given for this delay was that IPID’s email system was down.

Beaumont is adamant that in submitting this response, IPID has affirmed ActionSA’s belief that it does not want the South African public to see the contents of this report.

In a post on X today, he said his party had begun a countdown, and thereafter they would go to court.

“IPID has 24 days to respond to our PAIA application to unseal their report into the conduct of the Presidential Protection Unit regarding the Phala Phala case. If we do not receive this report by the stated deadline, then we will not hesitate to go to court,” Beaumont posted.