Although "secrecy bill" has not yet been signed into law, South Africa is fast becoming a "security state" with information that ought to be freely available to the public being kept under wraps.
This is according to civil society movement Right2Know, which launched its annual "Secret State of the Nation Report" in Cape Town yesterday.
The report warns of what appear to be irregular interceptions of ordinary people's cellphone conversations by the government.
Lead author Murray Hunter and the Right2Know campaign cited Nkandla, "Guptagate" and the spy tapes controversies as examples of events that were in the public interest but in respect of which the government resisted calls for transparency.
Professor Jane Duncan, of Rhodes University, said secrecy in the intelligence, military and police services had "reached a peak during the Jacob Zuma administration".
The Right2Know report raises concerns about a recent ruling by the Seriti Commission of Inquiry into the arms deals that restricted the release of information.
The Khampepe Report, which is believed to detail irregularities in Zimbabwe's 2002 elections, has yet to be made public.
Right2Know said the number of national key points rose from 118 between 2006 and 2007 to 197 in 2013-2014. This was evidence of the rise of the secret state, it said.
A national key point is described as any area or place about which information is restricted in the interests of national security.
The report raises the issue of applications for warrants authorising the monitoring of communications, and the use of the Regulation of Interception of Communication Act to authorise the interception of phone calls.
According to figures presented to parliament, the number of requests for "bugging warrants" increased by 170% between 2008 and 2011.
Right2Know said that in 2010 parliament heard that there had been about 3million communications interceptions over three years.
Government Communication and Information Systems CEO Phumla Williams could not be reached for comment.
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