Sale of SA's 10-million barrels of strategic fuel stocks to be contested in court
The outcome of the case will determine whether the country has access to any strategic stocks at all. At one point, it appeared that the sale was conditional on SA being able to buy back the stocks in case of need, but Zulu said this would be decided by the court.
Zulu appeared before Parliament's energy portfolio committee along with board members and executives of SFF's parent company, the Central Energy Fund and sister company, PetroSA.
Zulu said in an interview after the meeting that a legal opinion, with recommendations, had been obtained from the legal team commissioned by the former minister of energy, Tina Joemat-Pettersson, on which the court proceedings would be based. Last week, the legal team was given the go-ahead to proceed.
"So the process has started to give effect to the recommendations made by the legal team," Zulu said. He explained that on the basis of the legal opinion obtained by the government - including by senior counsel - there was "certainty" that SA does have access to the strategic fuel stocks, but this had to be tested in court.