Donwald Pressly
“Please don’t do this!” Gareth Ackerman begged the 400 National Assembly members, who are poised to vote on the secrecy bill this afternoon.
Ackerman, the chairman of Pick n Pay Stores, said the Protection of State Information Bill, which gives the government broad powers to classify state documents, was bad news for business.
His view is that business needs a transparent government in order to function properly. Signs that South Africa’s democracy was weakening would be perceived negatively by the international business community, which would have a negative impact on foreign direct investment and on jobs.
The bill has been watered down but still has onerous censorship powers over intelligence and defence information.
The Parliamentary Press Gallery Association and the SA National Editors’ Forum called on members to wear black when reporting from the National Assembly this afternoon.
AfriForum deputy chief executive Ernst Roets said his organisation was “ready to bring a Constitutional Court application against the secrecy bill”.
ANC chief whip Mathole Motshekga said the so-called Black Tuesday campaign was misdirected. Sapa quoted Motshekga as saying: “The only result this unfortunate… campaign in which people are urged to dress in black will achieve is to dilute the real history of Black Wednesday and insult the victims of apartheid’s barbaric laws.” He was referring to the October 1977 banning of The World, Sunday World and Pro Veritas, a Christian publication, by the apartheid government.
The Right2Know campaign condemned the legal action taken by presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj against two Mail & Guardian journalists whose story referred to the suppression of information in terms of “draconian provisions” of the existing 1998 National Prosecuting Act that threaten whistle-blowers with up to 15 years in jail.
Spokesman Murray Hunter said: “Effectively, this is even worse than the secrecy bill, which at least requires officials to formally classify a document before it becomes a state secret, and provides some degree of whistle-blower protection, as paper-thin as it may be.” page 14