Secrecy Bill imminent

The National Council of Provinces is set to put the final stamp on the Protection of State Information Bill during a vote tomorrow.

ANC members of the ad hoc committee on the bill adopted the final draft yesterday amid a walkout by opposition parties.

DA, COPE and Independent Democrat MPs said they had not been given sufficient time to consider the committee's final report.

However, all indications are that the ANC will still have to defend the bill in the Constitutional Court.

Right2Know Campaign spokesman Murray Hunter said if the bill was passed by the National Assembly next year and signed off by President Jacob Zuma, then a Constitutional Court challenge was "more than likely".

"There are a number of stages that need to be passed before we get to a point where we are even in a position to take it to court, but if the president fails to refer it to the Constitutional Court then we definitely will," he said.

COPE MP Dennis Bloem said the party would throw its weight behind any battle to oppose the bill.

Throughout deliberations, opposition parties have maintained that without a public interest defence clause, the bill would make it easier to prosecute whistleblowers and journalists who were in possession of classified state information.

It has also been argued that the bill could be used to cover up corruption.

In addition, the presence of the phrase "ought reasonably to have known" shifted the burden of proof onto the whistleblower rather than the prosecutor .

"It won't protect whistleblowers, it won't protect journalists. If you look at Nkandla now, if this bill can be passed, things like [Nkandlagate] will be illegal to publish," said Bloem.

The issue of President Jacob Zuma's rural home in Nkandla is currently being investigated by the public protector following allegations that some R250-million of taxpayers' money funded the upgrades. Zuma has denied this.

DA MP Alf Lees said legal action to prevent the bill from being enacted was a last resort. He said the opposition would first try to convince National Assembly members to draw up a petition asking that the president refer the matter to the Constitutional Court.

ANC MP and the ad hoc committee chairman Raseriti Tau said all concerns about the bill had been "substantially addressed".

Arguments that the bill lacked a public interest defence clause were also "misleading and factually incorrect", he said

In the event that corruption was suspected, anyone could apply to an organ of state to declassify the information in the public interest, he said.

Tau said any attempts to conceal breaches of the law by officials were also, according to provisions in the bill, punishable by imprisonment of up to 15 years.

He claimed objections to the bill were stirred by "political parties and individuals who are determined to use the processing of the bill to push newspaper headlines and project themselves and whatever grouping they represent".