New South Africa secrecy bill threat to democracy say opponents

South Africa’s ruling ANC is preparing to push a new secrecy bill through parliament despite fears it will threaten democracy and silence investigative journalists. 

Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko

The Protection of State Information bill will punish the possession or release of classified documents and carries a 25-year jail term.

Nobel prize winner Desmond Tutu and the office of former president Nelson Mandela have joined in the outcry against the bill.

The Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory says four changes could be made to the proposed bill without compromising its fundamental principles.

These include reformulating the bill’s wording so that a record may not be classified if the public interest in the disclosure of the record clearly outweighed any harm to national security.

South Africa’s press regularly uncovers allegations of graft that reach to the highest level of government.

Tutu urged lawmakers to reject the bill which will replace an apartheid-era law.

He stressed he did not want to suggest that the current government intended to use the leglisation to muzzle anyone or to cover anything up.

“But…there are presently a sufficient number of investigations into alleged corruption by emembers of this and previous governments to warrant treading with extra care,” he said.

The bill was first drafted in 2008 and reworked this year in marathon seesion b a special committe which n arrowed far-sweeping classification powers, but the ANC has stayed firm on other concerns.

The party says the bill stands up to international best standards.