Secrecy Bill flaws are 'not just typos'

State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele took a swipe at parliament yesterday for allowing typographically flawed legislation to slip through.

Opposition parties countered that the flaws in the Protection of State Information Bill, known as the Secrecy Bill, ran deeper than a few grammatical errors.

Cwele said: " What is clear is that parliament must seriously increase its capacity to avoid technical errors in legislation as parliament is now, unlike during the apartheid era, dealing with large volumes of legislation."

The bill was referred back to the National Assembly by President Jacob Zuma in September after he raised reservations about the likelihood of it passing constitutional muster.

In particular, Zuma referred to two sections of the bill.

"What caused the problems . identified by [Zuma] are several technical errors in the final bill which was sent to him," said Cwele.

DA parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko said: "The DA fully supports correcting these technical anomalies but there is much more that needs to be fixed. And the president knows this because I submitted a legal opinion to him which detailed these problems in meticulous detail."

COPE MP Papi Kganare said his party did not "go along with the charade" and that the ANC had "bulldozed" the bill through parliamentary deliberations.

The bill was passed with 225 votes for and 88 against.

It will again be sent to the president, who is expected to sign it into law.