DA, IFP in 'filibustering fluff' spat over secrecy bill

16 November 2011 - 11:31 By Anna Majavu - Politics LIVE
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Image: Sunday Times

The DA and the IFP have launched scathing attacks on each other over the ANC's proposed secrecy bill, which is set to be debated in the national assembly next week.

Until now, the DA, IFP and the African Christian Democratic Party have put up a united opposition to the ANC on the law.

But on Tuesday, DA MP Dene Smuts lashed out at IFP MP Mario Oriani-Ambrosini, after he called for 123 amendments to the bill, causing a delay in the processing of the law.

Accusing him of filibustering, or using delaying tactics, Smuts said Oriani-Ambrosini's amendments were "just a sack of filibustering fluff with no more substance than a goose down duvet".

She accused him of "currying favour with civil society and the media" with his alleged delaying tactics by proposing a "Right to Know Commission" made up of five people to be appointed by civil society.

Smuts said this group, which she dubbed "the famous five", would "enjoy unprecedented powers until now unknown in any democracy".

She said that in his bid to set up his commission, Oriani-Ambrosini ignored the key problem with the draft law - that it does not allow anyone to publish leaked classified documents if they feel it is in the public interest, or to expose corruption.

In response, Oriani-Ambrosini said Smuts had "personal issues" with him and that he had always said he would 'filibuster' if he believed that the parliamentary committee set up to discuss the bill produced a document that was not in the interests of South Africans.

"Her accusation that I have wasted time in the committee is false and is not how she should vent her spleen," he said.

"She should get with the times, not resist them.  Filibustering is an essential component of democracy in all the great parliaments of the world and is used in situations such as this one, when the will of the people is at odds with the will of the politicians," Oriani-Ambrosini added.

He said his amendments would give the opposition a second chance to improve the law.

The Right2Know campaign of civil society organisations, which was set up over a year ago to oppose the law, said on Monday that it was "outraged" that the ANC had shelved the bill last month promising to set up meetings in the deepest rural areas of the country to consult the people but was now bringing the law back without holding any public consultations.

Instead, the ANC provincial caucuses and State Security minister Siyabonga Cwele had held closed-door meetings, said Right2Know coordinator Murray Hunter.

"This latest move by the ANC appears to be nothing less than buying time and space to get members in line and make sure there is no public division or opposition to the bill from within the provinces," Hunter said.

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