Alarm over Cyber Security Pact with China
10 June 2015
The newly signed Cyber Security Pact with China is cause for concern about South Africa’s attitude towards restrictions on internet freedom and cyber surveillance of internet users (see EWN report).
I have therefore written to Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services, Siyabonga Cwele, asking for details of the terms of the deal he signed this week with the People’s Republic of China’s Industry and Information Technology Minister, Miao Wei.
China has earned a reputation for suppressing freedom of expression of its citizens by clamping down on social media sites, erecting firewalls to restrict citizens’ access to news and information from outside sources, and mounting cyber-attacks on Western corporations. This is not a regime South Africa needs to align too closely with if we seek to be an active and trusted online trading partner worldwide and champion the freedom of access to information and expression championed in our Constitution.
South Africa’s dubious attitude to international norms of human rights exercised through the internet is compounded by the signing of this pact – the first known deal of its kind since Minister Cwele took office a year ago.