Allow Parliament to process Protection of State Information Bill

25 Nov 2011

The National Council of Provinces yesterday resolved to establish an ad-hoc Committee to consider and report on the Protection of State Information Bill, as referred and transmitted for concurrence by the National Assembly on Tuesday, 22 November 2011.

The ad-hoc Committee will comprise 15 members altogether - drawn proportionally from the African National Congress, the Democratic Alliance, the Congress of the People and the Inkatha Freedom Party. During the course of its work, which is scheduled to end in April next year, the Committee will facilitate public participation on the bill, as is normally the case with bills before Committee of Parliament.

Members of the public are encouraged to make submissions to the Committee and the opportunities to do so will be advertised in due course. It would be premature to engage in activities or processes not linked to the Parliamentary processes, when these are not yet complete. This includes approaches to the Constitutional Court to have the bill declared unconstitutional.

Statement issued by Parliament of South Africa, November 25 2011

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