The Council for Geoscience (CGS) says it will be finalising its data policy early next year, following a moratorium on its geophysical data.

The council put a moratorium on geophysical data after it discovered that someone had sold some of its data.

“We will be making a big pronouncement on how all South Africans can access data in the beginning of February, around the time of the Mining Indaba,” said CGS CEO Mosa Mabuza.

He said, while the council had been collecting data for over 100 years, it needed a proper policy.

“Incoherent management of data has subjected our geoscientists to the risk of corrupt activities. “We took the decision to place a moratorium on the data so that we could develop a data policy,” Mabuza told a meeting for investors in the oil and gas industry. He said the data policy would be considered by its board at the end of January.

“It is in the interests of all South Africans to have a mechanism that is transparent and accessible.”

Mabuza told Engineering News that the moratorium was for a limited period and that the council was still able to attend to ad hoc requests for information.

“The sad thing is that we caught one of our scientists, and we had to do what we had to do. “We had to consider an environment where information becomes a commodity, and, once it becomes a commodity, it creates a culture for corruption.” He said he hoped policy and transparency would “kill the commodity status”.

Some investors at the meeting said their work on exploration plans had been delayed because they did not have access to the data, owing to the moratorium. They have had to rely on international sources and US images on South Africa in the meantime.

They also called for data to be shared openly among licence holders across the country. They said this would attract investors to fund exploration programmes.