Info bill intended for foreign spies, really?

At a time when South Africa needs the Promotion of Access to Information Act, promulgated on 2 February 2000, the government is taking the access away through the Protection of State Information Bill.

State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele claims the legislation is for protecting state information from foreign spies and not locals, but I don’t know of any clause in the bill that says South African citizens are exempt from this legislation.

"If I am a foreign spy -- any legislation which makes my work harder won't be nice for me," Cwele told the National Council of Provinces ad-hoc committee dealing with the bill.

He said information peddling was a "growing cancer" and South Africa did not have laws to fight this.

The department's acting director general Dennis Dlomo, told the committee that the bill was not meant to hide information from South Africans. "We are not hiding it from our fellow South Africans... We are hiding it from those who are trying to harm our national interests," Dlomo said.

I guess it is just “unfortunate” that while the government is hiding information from foreign spies, it will ‘unintentionally’ remain hidden from locals as well.

Over 85 countries around the world have implemented some form of legislation allowing their citizens access to government information. Sweden's Freedom of the Press Act of 1766 is said to be the oldest in the world.

The US has the Freedom of Information Act which governs access to government information.

The People's Republic of China (communist China) has the Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Open Government Information.

Even countries like Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belize, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Ecuador, Iceland, Latvia, Jamaica and Montenegro have access of information legislation. Nigeria passed theirs in May 18 last year.

The longer the Info Bill debate continues, the more convinced I become that the main driving force behind government pushing for this legislation is to cover up corruption. The National Party government did exactly the same thing to cover up corruption and the funding of covet operations.