‘Stop secrecy bill before it is law’

The following article was published online by The New Age

A Civil society group has urged South Africans to close ranks and fight against the adoption of the Protection of Information Bill by Parliament.

Murray Hunter, coordinator of the Right2Know campaign, warned yesterday that fighting the draft legislation – dubbed the secrecy bill – in the Constitutional Court would be protracted and costly.

Addressing the Cape Town Press Club, Hunter said civil society should pile pressure on parliamentarians not to pass the bill in the first instance.

He said despite the concessions made by the ANC on the bill, there was no need for the country to have this piece of legislation as it would curtail the free flow of information.

As part of the concessions, the ANC has agreed security services be the only state organs allowed to classify information.

In addition, they have scrapped minimum sentences for the publishing of classified information.

However, Hunter says that instead of concessions and changes, South Africans should put all their efforts into fighting against the adoption of the bill.

“There is a huge appetite to take this to the Constitutional Court.

Civil society is preparing strategies,” the activist said, adding that trade union federation, Cosatu, had also indicated it was prepared to go the highest court in the land if no significant changes were made.

Cosatu has said the bill would be a threat to whistle-blowers.

“There is no ambiguity that it will be taken to the Constitutional Court if necessary but it will be an expensive and long fight,” he told the press club.

Hunter warned the Constitutional Court route might be the last resort as the bill would have been passed by Parliament.

The court challenge could be reminiscent to that of Johannesburg businessman Hugh Glenister’s battle against the dissolution of the Scorpions whose victory came after “the damage had already been done”.

“There are many reasons to defeat this in Parliament through public pressure.

“What we see in South Africa is a groundswell of opinion that goes beyond the party line in opposing this bill,” said Hunter.

He said many people in the ANC were opposed to the bill.

The late former cabinet minister, Kader Asmal, objected to the draft and so did ex-intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils.

“The secrecy bill has created more appetite for the campaign for more transparency. The secrecy bill can be defeated but that will involve a mass campaign.

“There is no way to clamp down on information. It’s like water, it climbs out,” Hunter said, adding that both the private and public sector had to apply pressure on members of Parliament to scrap the draft legislation.

What the bill had done for the country was to mobilise all social forces against it and the social movement objecting to it continued to grow, he said.

“We thank the Minister of State Security, Siyabonga Cwele, in that by putting forward the bill, he has aligned all of us. He has put us on the same table,” he elaborated.

Warning of the constitutional consequences of the Protection of Information Bill, Hunter said it was like “watching a car crash in slow motion”.

He said the bill would be especially disastrous for investigative journalism. Source: The New Age

Source: The New Age