Vavi changes ANC info bill stance

Former general secretary of Cosatu, Zwelinzima Vavi, claimed that "a predatory elite" was aiming to take control over South African society. Photo: Antoine de Ras.

Former general secretary of Cosatu, Zwelinzima Vavi, claimed that "a predatory elite" was aiming to take control over South African society. Photo: Antoine de Ras.

Published Jun 5, 2011

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The ANC took its foot off the accelerator in its determination to drive the Protection of Information Bill through Parliament this week, conceding the need to extend the deadline in the face of a crescendo of criticism.

The concession followed something of a sea change in the committee processing the bill. ANC MPs had earlier been using the weight of their numbers to vote through clauses of the contentious legislation and opposition MPs were complaining there was no engagement on the issues.

That changed with committee chairman ANC MP Cecil Burgess and other ruling party members of the committee, notably Luwellyn Landers, last week entertaining discussion and debate on key issues.

DA MP Dene Smuts ascribed the shift – and suggestion the June 24 deadline move – to the “Vavi effect”, a reference to a hard-hitting statement by Cosatu on Tuesday, which warned it would go to the Constitutional Court if there were no major changes to “protect whistleblowers and South Africans’ right to information of public interest”.

A high-level meeting between Cosatu and ANC officials was expected to take place as early as this weekend.

Cosatu spokesman Patrick Craven said the labour federation welcomed the move to postpone the deadline for processing the bill.

“We’d like to think that’s because the arguments against it are so strong,” he said.

Cosatu asked for the meeting to raise its concerns about the bill it wanted “fundamentally redrafted”.

ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe would not discuss the meeting.

Vavi effect or not, the fact that criticism of the bill has focused less on its threat to media freedom and more on the general threat it poses to every citizen’s right to know, could lie behind the ANC’s decision to tread more softly and avoid accusations that it is showing scant regard for the notion of due legislative process. Undue secrecy would hurt its biggest constituency, the poor and the marginalised.

State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele, briefing journalists on his budget vote in Parliament on Thursday, said the tight deadlines had been imposed by Parliament and denied the ruling party was trying to steamroller the bill through.

“Is there haste at the expense of useful and necessary engagement in Parliament? I don’t think so – but if there is, we won’t support it,” he said. He then suggested the possibility of the deadline being extended. The next day, ANC MPs recommended this, and Burgess will be writing to National Assembly Speaker Max Sisulu to ask for more time.

Activists in the Right2Know campaign, who come from bodies that include human rights lawyers and media freedom lobbyists, but also – and crucially – community organisations with experience of the impact of government officials’ denying them information about development and other issues, will be watching closely when the committee reconvenes on Friday.

Some concessions have been made, and the ANC last week proposed that provision be made for a classification review panel that would consider, among other things, reports of 10-year reviews on the status of classified information.

Opposition MPs had issues with the proposal, however, as the ANC is proposing its members be appointed by the state security minister, and that its own reports be submitted to Parliament’s joint standing committee on intelligence, which is chaired by Burgess and routinely meets behind closed doors. - Gaye Davis

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