"ANC MP Teboho Chaane said the party had been "very tolerant, accommodative and ridiculously fair" to critics of the bill.

...whistle-blowers and journalists who possess or circulate classified or top secret information.. They could be sentenced to 25 years in jail, even if the information exposes government corruption or misconduct. The bill has no public-interest defence clause."

If this is the ANC being 'ridiculously fair' - I shudder to think what 'ridiculously unfair' might entail.

Are we going to have an SA journalist version of Wikileaks soon? Draconian laws are very difficult to enforce in the modern world.

You gotta give it to the ANC, they learned very well from their apartheid teachers. Proving the old adage correct - the more things change, the more they stay exactly the same. Welcome back to 1984

ANC MP Sam Mazosiwe said the ruling party believed the Constitutional Court would not find fault with the bill

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But of course, the concourt would approve. You assured that with the appointment of the perfect choice of CJ - Moegoe Moegoe.

I wonder what they will eventually classify as secret, the Nkandla story, the Arms Deal, the toll road benficiaries. This government and most of its acolytes and minions are rotten to the core.

They will not be in power forever but the majority of us will not be here to see them depart as we shall have departed before them.

What do they want to hide?

Let them be aware of the wikileaks, Will they jail people who look at the SA version of Wiki leaks and then diseminate the contents?

Heaven help us.

Of course, ''Mogoeng/zuma'' is there tom take care of ''business''! Welcome to the world of tyranny!

They need to push it through quickly, so that they can sweep all of the Nkandla irregularities under the secrecy carpet.

The ANC will stop at nothing to bully everyone for own selfish gain.... I guess we all going to be arrested again in the fight against extreme oppressors and the sad thing is the electorate will be torchured into blindly voting for such arrogance and self serving needs..... 100 Years of the ANC fighting against this type of suppression of information leads us up to the ANC embracing the very same Apartheid laws to hide their corrupt dealings. Where exactly is the difference between them and the NP? Apart from the ineptitude the ANC show when they go about their looting of the state coffers?

This amounts to reversal of time, which is intertwined with space. The confusion begins with understanding the valuable task of protecting a nation and its freedom, as expressed in the constitution, clandestinely. The fact that this obligation is fulfilled in secrecy, is at odds with the democratic principles of transparency, accountability, responsibility and responsiveness, to the very "protected". Where the very constitution that expresses the will, is a subject of controversial interpretation, due to the tendency, and the established history of one race - and thus one party - annihilating the others, then "protection" is the birthright of the elite.

Where politics and executive governance are the same, insulation of the overall objective of intelligence from political influence, without isolating it from executive governance, becomes meaningless. In a country like ours, there is no rule of law, as the law itself belongs to elite of the majority party, enforced upon the majority of the citizens. Thus a 5million+ protects its own against the 50million+ citizenry. A chosen few of its elite possess special powers, such as the ability to interfere with private property or communications of a vast majority, limiting their hard-earned human rights.

The already reduced legitimacy of security forces, a keystone of a democratic order, is now increased by the prospects of their operating outside of even the very limited control by their elite. They now cannot only interfere with anyone's right to property, communication, etc, under the guise of 'national' security, but can arbitrarily determine what is 'national' security. Where 'security' differs according to political affiliation, it is clear whose 'security' will be protected. And accountability for abuse of so much excessive powers, can be to anyone with powers to 'classify' such 'security', despite the erratic nature of a human mind, even at its highest efficiency.

Even if Mangaung changes this unprecedented form of elite securitisation, there is no hope of freedom. We are reminded of what Motlanthe did to Vusi Pikoli, when he held the helms. As they say, a tiger never changes its spots. Or should we say; 'a jackal cannot alter its instincts'

In their dreams perhaps but in reality it would not pass the Constitutional court test as the legislation is simply unconstitutional.

The ANC of today is very much the retarded brother of the NP of old, same ideology but less brains to implement all those racist ideas effectively. Info Bill, Arms-deal, Nkandla....Shaik, Yengeni, Zuma (pick any one), this country will go the same way that the rest of Africa has gone, flushed down the toilet. All the signs are in place, even bleeding heart liberals such as Clem Sunters are recognizing it and trying to make people aware.
The best part however are the pictures of the unwashed masses, who support Zuma Inc to the last regardless of how much he f*&s and robs them blind.

What made ANC confident for the approval of this bill is that they believe they are going to rule forever and I have one wish, let the bill be approved and established and there after they (ANC) should loose the election. And for that they will wish they can reverse it.