Pressure mounts on MPs to finalise ‘secrecy bill’
The following article was published in the BussinessDay
MPs will lose considerable working time because Parliament rises for its spring recess a week before the deadline for completion
CAPE TOWN — Pressure is mounting on MPs dealing with the controversial “secrecy bill”, following news yesterday that they will lose considerable working time because Parliament rises for its spring recess a week before the deadline for completion.
The a d hoc committee on the Protection of Information Bill was earlier in the year given until September 23 to complete its work and it now appears Parliament will rise on September 15.
The ad hoc committee has twice missed deadlines and has had to have its life span extended by a resolution of the National Assembly.
Making the announcement to the MPs, committee chairman Cecil Burgess of the African National Congress (ANC) indicated that even more time would be lost because he wanted MPs to consider a final printed bill before they sent it to the National Assembly. This was to ensure that the bill accurately reflected what had been decided in committee deliberations.
Democratic Alliance (DA) MP Dene Smuts pointed out to Mr Burgess that this did not mean the bill had to be finalised in the National Assembly by September 15 . She was supported by African Christian Democratic Party MP Steve Swart who said the House could then deal with the bill on the basis of a committee report once it returned after the recess.
Mr Burgess appeared to be firm that the work on the bill needed to be completed by September 15.
This has raised speculation that the many controversial issues that have yet to be decided would be forced through.
Opposition MPs have tried to get various formulations of a “public interest” defence included in the bill through various means, but so far have been stonewalled by the ANC.
A public interest defence for the publication of classified information is one of the key demands of opposition parties and civil society organisations, but the ANC has resisted any attempts to introduce one to the draft bill.
The ANC has also insisted that both the possession and publication of classified information should be crimes. It has insisted that if an individual comes into possession of classified information they should return it to the authorities.
Also still to be resolved is the ANC’s suggestion that “national security” need not be defined in the bill.
Opposition MPs insist that it should be defined because not doing so would make it possible for intelligence agents to decide for themselves what amounted to a national security matter, thus allowing a very wide range of information to be classified.
The committee is scheduled to work late into the night for most of this week.
Source BusinessDay
