To download the soundbite of the Chairperson of the Select Committee on Public Infrastructure and the Minister in the Presidency, Mr Rikus Badenhorst, click here https://iono.fm/e/1659677
Parliament, Tuesday, 24 May 2026 – The Chairperson of the Select Committee on Public Infrastructure and the Minister in the Presidency, Mr Rikus Badenhorst, has expressed serious concern about the Department of Transport’s failure to adequately prepare to engage with the submissions made by the Biodiversity Law Centre.
The committee met to receive a detailed briefing from the Biodiversity Law Centre on critical legislative gaps relating to civil liability for bunker oil pollution and the regulation of offshore bunkering activities. The submission highlighted real and ongoing risks to coastal communities, the environment and the economy, as well as systemic barriers facing affected parties in seeking redress.
The department was unprepared when it came time to respond to the law centre’s submissions, Mr Badenhorst said. “This committee has a programme that is communicated to departments well in advance. The committee had formally invited the department to engage. The issues were known. The submission was circulated. And still, the department chose to hide behind procedural excuse, claiming non-receipt of documents and promising written responses at some undefined future date,” said Mr Badenhorst.
The committee said it is particularly concerning that this pattern mirrors what the Biodiversity Law Centre itself has experienced from the department: difficulty in accessing key documents, redacted information and an overall lack of transparency. Mr Badenhorst said one cannot escape the conclusion that there is a systemic reluctance to subject offshore bunkering activities to proper scrutiny.
The committee will not accept this, the Chairperson said. Parliament is not a box-ticking exercise. It is the constitutional mechanism through which departments are held accountable to the people of South Africa. When a department fails to engage meaningfully with well-researched, substantive civil society inputs, it is not merely disrespectful to the committee, it is a failure of governance.
The select committee will now escalate this matter. The department will be required to provide comprehensive, written responses to the submissions received within a clearly defined timeframe and to return before the committee fully prepared to account.
Furthermore, the committee will proceed with a review of the applicable legal and policy framework, guided by Parliament’s Legislative Impact Assessment Framework, to ensure that South Africa is not left exposed to environmental risk due to regulatory inertia. “We will not allow flimsy excuses to stand in the way of accountability,” stated Mr Badenhorst.
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE AND THE MINISTER IN THE PRESIDENCY, MR RIKUS BADENHORST.
For media inquiries or interviews with the Chairperson, please contact the committee’s Media Officer:
Name: Yoliswa Landu (Ms)
Cell: 081 497 4694
E-mail:ylandu@parliament.gov.za
Arrange a tour