ANDISIWE MAKINANA
Political Bureau
THE ANC seemed to be bending slightly on an aspect of the Protection of Information Bill last night as a national survey showed that fewer than one in three South Africans were in favour of the proposed law.
A TNS research survey conducted in February found that only a third of people living in urban areas supported the bill, which seeks to regulate the classification of state secrets, while the ANC’s proposed media appeals tribunal was also supported by 31 percent of the 2 000 participants.
TNS reported that 36 percent of people disagreed with the statement, “You support the idea of the ANC’s proposed media appeals tribunal”, while 33 percent did not have an opinion. Regarding the statement “You support the idea of the Protection of Information Bill”, 29 percent of people disagreed and 40 percent did not know.
The TNS survey showed that 41 percent of black people supported the appeals tribunal compared to 13 percent of whites, 13 percent of coloureds and 20 percent of Indians/-Asians. Twenty-seven percent of blacks did not support the Protection of Information Bill, with 38 percent of whites, 21 percent of coloureds and 39 percent of Indians/Asians opposed to it.
According to the research, people in Joburg felt more positive about the media appeals tribunal and Protection of Information Bill, while those in Cape Town felt more negative about the proposed tribunal.
“Most of these regional differences are due to the differing racial compositions of the different areas,” TNS said.
This came as trade union federation and ANC ally Cosatu yesterday threatened legal action if the bill was passed in its current form, calling it a threat to whistle-blowers.
The ANC’s Lluwellyn Landers, meanwhile, revealed during yesterday’s meeting of the special parliamentary committee processing the bill that the party wanted to introduce a new clause which would provide for the establishment of a classification review panel.
It would be an independent panel to review all classified information on an annual basis, he said.
It would then report its findings to the joint standing committee on intelligence on an annual basis or as otherwise required.
“We don’t want the panel to classify or declassify information, because it would lose its independence,” Landers said.
Opposition parties supported this proposal, with the DA’s Dene Smuts saying: “It sounds like an excellent proposal.”