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South Africa approves secrets bill
Source: Agencies |
November 23, 2011, Wednesday
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South African lawmakers overwhelmingly approved a bill yesterday to protect state secrets that critics say will stifle expression.
The 229-107 vote came after months of debate, but was widely expected because the bill was presented by the governing African National Congress, which has a large parliamentary majority.
A range of opposition groups say they will challenge the measure at the Constitutional Court if it becomes law.
The bill's critics included two Nobel prizewinners: peace laureate Retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu and literature laureate Nadine Gordimer.
The office of Nelson Mandela, South Africa's first post-apartheid president and also a Nobel peace laureate, also has expressed reservations about the bill.
The ANC says South Africa needed to update apartheid-era legislation defining secrets and setting out punishments for divulging them.
Parliament's upper house could ask for revisions, but that rarely happens. President Jacob Zuma will have to sign the bill, and while his legal advisers may ask for revisions, he was expected to approve the measure.
Critics staged protests at the ANC's downtown Johannesburg headquarters during morning rush hour yesterday, and in the afternoon outside parliament in Cape Town as lawmakers voted, saying the bill lack a provision allowing those who break the law to avoid jail if they could argue they acted in the public interest.
They fear the adoption of the measure in a country known for one of the continent's most open constitutions could influence other governments in the region.
On Monday, Tutu said it is "insulting to all South Africans to be asked to stomach legislation that could be used to outlaw whistle-blowing and investigative journalism ... and that makes the state answerable only to the state."
While the bill makes it a crime to divulge state secrets, it also makes it a crime for an official to withhold information to conceal wrongdoing or incompetence, or avoid embarrassment.
The 229-107 vote came after months of debate, but was widely expected because the bill was presented by the governing African National Congress, which has a large parliamentary majority.
A range of opposition groups say they will challenge the measure at the Constitutional Court if it becomes law.
The bill's critics included two Nobel prizewinners: peace laureate Retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu and literature laureate Nadine Gordimer.
The office of Nelson Mandela, South Africa's first post-apartheid president and also a Nobel peace laureate, also has expressed reservations about the bill.
The ANC says South Africa needed to update apartheid-era legislation defining secrets and setting out punishments for divulging them.
Parliament's upper house could ask for revisions, but that rarely happens. President Jacob Zuma will have to sign the bill, and while his legal advisers may ask for revisions, he was expected to approve the measure.
Critics staged protests at the ANC's downtown Johannesburg headquarters during morning rush hour yesterday, and in the afternoon outside parliament in Cape Town as lawmakers voted, saying the bill lack a provision allowing those who break the law to avoid jail if they could argue they acted in the public interest.
They fear the adoption of the measure in a country known for one of the continent's most open constitutions could influence other governments in the region.
On Monday, Tutu said it is "insulting to all South Africans to be asked to stomach legislation that could be used to outlaw whistle-blowing and investigative journalism ... and that makes the state answerable only to the state."
While the bill makes it a crime to divulge state secrets, it also makes it a crime for an official to withhold information to conceal wrongdoing or incompetence, or avoid embarrassment.
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