This is an important story we've been tracking for a while, the outcome of which has ramifications that extend throughout the public sector. In fact we thought it was game over when, in November last year, Biowatch was ordered to pay Monsanto's legal costs.

Biowatch announced yesterday that it would be lodging an application for leave to appeal with the Constitutional Court against the order to pay legal costs of Monsanto South Africa.

percy schmeiser beat monsanto: photo by andre filipeThe story goes back all the way to the year 2000 when Biowatch requested information from the Registrar for Genetic Resources and which the Registrar basically chose to ignore. Biowatch took them to court along with the Executive Council for Genetic Resources and the Minister of Agriculture in order to force them to make certain information available in the public interest. Monsanto and a few other GM seed companies saw fit to join in the fray by becoming co-respondants in order to protect their business interests.

By Feb 2005 the court ordered that Biowatch be granted access to most of the information it requested, and specifically Judge Dunn reaffirmed that:
· Biowatch South Africa had a constitutional right to this information.
· Access to the information was in the public interest.
· Biowatch South Africa had been forced to apply to the court to exercise this right.

Obscurely, though, instead of applying the general principle that costs should follow the result of litigation, Judge Dunn ordered Biowatch South Africa to pay the legal costs of Monsanto South Africa (Pty) Ltd. His reason: Biowatch had been too general in its request for information and this had forced Monsanto South Africa to come to court to protect its interests.

Biowatch was subsequently granted leave to appeal the costs order, which was heard in the Pretoria High Court in April 2007. In November 2007, Judge Fanie Mynhardt and Judge Mpho Molopa-Sethosa dismissed the Biowatch appeal. They ordered Biowatch to pay not only Monsanto’s legal costs but also the appeal legal costs of the government statutory bodies against whom the original court application was brought.

In a new twist, the option of appealing to the Constitutional Court has been opened by a dissenting judgement from one of the three judges who heard Biowatch’s appeal in April 2007. In his judgement handed down this month, Judge Justice Poswa says the costs order in favour of Monsanto South Africa (Pty) Ltd should be reversed.

Judge Poswa also says that South Africa’s statutory bodies responsible for regulating GM crops should pay Biowatch’s legal costs. These are the Minister of Agriculture, the GMO Executive Council and the GMO registrar.

We look forward to the next chapter in the saga. May justice be served! Viva Biowatch!

Related posts on Biowatch:
high stakes on biowatch appeal
safm debate on gm foods
we're still holding thumbs for biowatch
biowatch appeal judgement expected today
biowatch loses appeal!