Right2Know welcomes ANC's concessions: at last, the real work can begin

25 June 2011

The Right2Know campaign welcomes the ANC's concessions on the Protection of Information Bill (the Secrecy Bill) on Friday, which we take as a sign that there is a commitment to begin the mammoth task of fixing the Bill. It is a first, but important step, which may signal a willingness by democrats within Parliament and government to push back against an apparent grab for power by securocrats within the state. This would have been impossible without the voice of ordinary South Africans who have led the struggle for the Right2Know campaign over the past year.

We applaud the multitude of South Africans and international supporters who are raising their voices in protest at the Bill. These concessions are testament to the public pressure applied by civil society and the people of South Africa to oppose the Bill's draconian provisions, which would punish whistleblowers and undermine demands for transparent and accountable governance.

We also welcome MPs' remarks that the ANC is committed to ensuring the constitutionality of each clause of the Bill. This is a vital commitment to ensure that earlier attempts to rush the Bill through Parliament with issues unresolved will not be repeated.

We view this as a first step in the right direction; there is much work to be done if the Bill is to be rid of its draconian secrecy clauses. We must remember that these concessions were won through months of public outcry, community mobilisation and activism. We hope this can be the start of a new and positive period of engagement that will result in all of Right2Know's seven demands being met.

In short, we hope that the real work on the Secrecy Bill can now begin.

Briefing note: What do the concessions mean?

While no document was tabled during Friday's meeting, Mr Landers verbally proposed the following amendments:

1. Limit the application of classification primarily to state security services

This would mean that only the state security services would have the authority to classify information. In this proposal, there would be an opt-in clause included for other state organs to apply for the authority to classify information. This is an important step in reducing the power of the Bill, as long as the opt-in process is subject to independent oversight. However, even within the state security services there needs to be further discussion to ensure the Bill's secrecy provisions would only be applied according to a narrow and strict definition of "national security" - the current definition is still extraordinarily broad. The committee still needs to examine clauses which criminalise the mere possession of any information relating to any state security matter whatsoever. These clauses would prevent any kind of public scrutiny of the state security services.

2. Include an independent appeal mechanism

The ANC agreed to the appointment of a retired judge as the appeal authority to resolve disputes under the provisions of the Bill. This proposal together with the changes to the review panel also discussed in that meeting is an important step towards ensuring that state security services would be held accountable to the public.

3. Removing minimum prison sentences for disclosing state secrets and ensuring that penalties for releasing a state secret are proportional to any harm caused.

These concessions are a positive step towards amending the Bill to ensure that whistleblowers and journalists are protected. However, the ANC's concessions stop short of including an explicit and unambiguous public interest defence for releasing state secrets, which would be vital to protect those who release a state secret to expose wrongdoing. It is also unclear whether or not simple possession of a classified document would still be criminalised and whether the penalties would still apply to ordinary members of the public or only to officials whose job is to keep secrets. This concession means that MPs will have to undertake a complete revision of the penalties clauses as they currently stand.

Statement issued by Murray Hunter, National Coordinator, Right2Know Campaign, June 25 2011

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