Category Archives: censorship

M&G: Secrecy Bill shows ANC’s historic mission is over

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http://mg.co.za/article/2011-11-25-secrecy-bill-shows-ancs-historic-mission-is-over/

Secrecy Bill shows ANC’s historic mission is over

Ayanda Kota

When the National Party government realised it was losing its grip on power, it became preoccupied with state security. It was so paranoid that secrecy and censorship became a tool of oppression. It was criminal to possess any document government saw as threatening. Media censorship was severe. On “Black Wednesday”, October 19 1977, 18 black consciousness formations were banned and their leaders jailed, tortured and killed. Newspapers were also banned.

Former president Nelson Mandela, addressing the Congress of South African Trade Union (Cosatu) in 1994, said: “If the ANC does to you what the government of the National Party did to you, you must do to the ANC what you did to the government of the National Party.”

But when the people protest against corrupt politicians who treat the poor with contempt, the ANC does not listen. Instead we are beaten, jailed, tortured and even killed. Who can forget Andries Tatane? His murder was a repeat of what happened to Hector Petersen on June 16 1976. He has become the martyr of the rebellion of the poor. Who can forget what happened to the demonstration of Abahlali baseMjondolo in 2006, when police open fire to a peaceful march? It was a repeat of the 1980s. Who can forget when the residents of Hangberg in Cape Town were jailed and shot at for refusing evictions? Some lost their eyes to rubber bullets. It was a repeat of what happened at Crossroads in Cape Town when people resisted illegal evictions.

Recently reporter Mzilikazi wa Afrika was arrested and no one knew where he was being held. This was a move to intimidate journalists. It was a continuation of apartheid tactics and a collapse into rule by decree, outside the Constitution. This is not democracy.

There is no freedom if the people do not know what the government is doing in their name. Every cent that goes to a political party or to a politician should be public know­ledge.

Otherwise how do we know why or in whose interest decisions are made? The arms deal and its cover-up was the point at which we first lost the freedom to know and it has got worse.

The secrecy Bill is the ultimate manifestation of the elected deciding what the people they are supposed to serve will be allowed to know. Politicians want to be kings and queens, not servants of the people. Just look at their blue-light cavalcades. This is not democracy.

It is becoming more and more clear that the government of the ANC is starting to do to us what the government of the National Party did to us. It is repressing our struggles, forcing us into transit camps at gunpoint, leaving us to shit in buckets in shacks, denying most of us the right to decent education and denying millions of us the right to work or to have a decent housing.

At the same time, these ANC leaders are undermining the Cons­titutional Court and media freedom. And they are corrupt beyond repair. They are millionaires and billionaires through tenderpreneurship. They have privatised our struggle and they rule our country as if it is their private property. They are indulging in the politics of who has the right to plunder our resources.

We are supposed to accept that politics is a choice between Julius Malema (and his faction) or Jacob Zuma (and his faction). We are supposed to think that politics is a choice between Malema destroying a R4-million house in Sandton and building a R16-million house on the property or Zuma building a homestead in Nkandla at a cost of hundreds of millions of public money. This lavish homestead is surrounded by falling-down mud houses and people who go to bed hungry.

Our movements have won some important victories in the Constitutional Court. Although we must defend it from attack by the predatory elite, the fact is that it cannot protect us forever and it cannot, on its own, give us what we need. The court is already being undermined by the Zuma government and the ANC has made it clear it intends to subordinate it to the party.

Civil society has won some victories too. But NGOs do not represent the people and have no real power to stand up to an increasingly ruthless, predatory elite.

The answer to the betrayal of our struggle can be seen in Tahrir Square. When the people of Egypt took to the streets, united and determined in their actions, their former president looked to the head of the army to defend him. The response of the general was: “It is time to go.” Yes, it was time to go, because the people united can never be defeated. Now the people are demanding that the generals must go. If they stand together and stand strong in their numbers, the generals will go too.

It is only mass action by the masses of the people that can protect the people from an oppressive government and advance their interests. Our people are already on the streets. The rebellion of the poor has been raging for years now. It has produced some powerful movements in some places.

It is time for us to come together and sustain mass action in a united front against those who have captured and privatised the people’s struggle for a free, democratic and equal country. It is time for us to stop pretending that the Constitution and civil society will save us. Only the people, organised and united in struggle, can save us.

The ANC is doing to us what the National Party government did to us. It is time for them to go! We must embark on the second wave of revolution. We must draw our inspiration from the revolutions that started in Tunisia and have moved across the Arab world and fed into the mass protests in Greece, Spain and now the United States.

The ANC has served its historic mission. Its time has passed. It must go now. The time has come to start building real alternatives from the ground up.

Cape Times: Last ditch bid to stop bill

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http://www.iol.co.za/capetimes/last-ditch-bid-to-stop-bill-1.1183812

Last ditch bid to stop bill

AN eleventh-hour appeal to Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe yesterday asked him to intervene to forestall today’s National Assembly vote on the Protection of State Information Bill, while the SA National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) urged MPs not to support it.

The Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa) wrote to Motlanthe in his capacity as leader of government business in Parliament, raising concerns not only about the bill, but also the apparent failure of the further consultation process promised by the ANC after it temporarily shelved the bill in September.

Print and broadcast media editors were due to fly to Cape Town from across the country to be present in the public gallery for today’s sitting at 2pm.

The Right2Know campaign has planned protests outside Parliament and elsewhere in the country, while the National Press Club called for people to wear black in symbolic protest against what it called “Black Tuesday”.

Given the ANC’s majority, the bill is likely to be passed. The ruling party’s MPs are under a three-line whip for the vote. This does not mean the bill becomes law, however, as it must first be referred to the National Council of Provinces, which has the power to start a fresh round of public consultation and also to make amendments.

Cosatu affiliate, the SA Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu), added its voice to the outcry yesterday.

“The bill is not ready to be signed into law and is set to negatively impact the noble fight against corruption,” it said.

Municipal workers had been victimised and in some cases, physically attacked for exposing corruption in local government that robbed the poor of desperately needed services, Samwu spokesman Tahir Sema said.

“But our members were only able to expose the crooked tenderpreneurs, the rampant cronyism, politically convenient manoeuvring and nepotism by having access to documents, and being able to use them to alert greater authorities that malpractices were being committed.

“If the Protection of State Information Bill is signed into law, it will not only enable a whole range of municipal documents to be classified as secret, but will also serve to protect those who are misusing their positions for private and nefarious gain,” Sema said.

Western Cape Right2Know campaign co-ordinator, Nkwame Cedile, said South Africans shouldn’t “sit back and allow this to happen”.

“Section 32 in our Constitution clearly states that the public has a right to be informed.”

In its letter sent to all MPs yesterday, Sanef acknowledged the important work done over the past 18 months by MPs to substantially improve the bill.

But it said the changes had not gone far enough to “render the bill safe for democracy”.

In its current form, the bill “represents an attack on principles of open democracy that are deeply embedded in our

constitution and our national life”.

“It will limit the work of government departments, Chapter Nine institutions, Parliament, trade unions, the media, and civil society by choking off the flow of vital information, and restricting crucial accountability mechanisms.”

Chief among several remaining flaws in the bill was the absence of a public interest defence, “crucial to ensuring that the bill does not become an instrument to suppress information that may reveal serious wrongdoing”.

“Also of serious concern is the blanket secrecy afforded our powerful and important intelligence structures, secrecy that shields excessively from scrutiny, and leaves little recourse when they abuse their considerable authority.

“We recognise the need for a reformed legislative regime to govern the management of sensitive state information.

“You now have an opportunity to ensure that such legislation advances our democracy, rather than injuring it,” Sanef told MPs.

“The first step is to reject the bill by voting against it in the National Assembly tomorrow.”

Public Protector Thuli Madonsela has also weighed in. Her spokeswoman, Kgalelo Masibi, said that Madonsela had written a letter to the National Assembly Speaker, Max Sisulu, “alerting him to the numerous concerns raised with her”, with special emphasis on the absence of a public interest defence.

“The public protector cannot investigate legislative acts as her jurisdiction is (government) maladministration,” Masibi said. “Should Parliament approve the bill unaltered, the public protector will forward the concerns (raised with her) to the president.”

* Anglican Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu said: “It is insulting to be asked to stomach legislation that makes the state answerable only to the state. I appeal to our MPs: please hear the disquiet, the warnings.”

* Abahlali baseMjondolo chairman Sbu Zikode said: “This bill will take South Africa back to the dark days of apartheid. Abahlali will not allow the government to protect corruption.”

* AfriForum deputy chief executive Ernst Roets said: “If this bill is passed, any claims that South Africa is a healthy democracy will be void of credibility.”

Dark corners of the state we’re in

Dark corners of the state we're in

Padkos from the Church Land Programme

Just after the attacks on Kennedy Road in 2009, S'bu Zikode, then President of the shack-dwellers' movement, Abahlali baseMjondolo said:

"This attack is an attempt to suppress the voice that has emerged from the dark corners of our country. That voice is the voice of ordinary poor people. This attack is an attempt to terrorise that voice back into the dark corners. It is an attempt to turn the frustration and anger of the poor onto the poor so that we will miss the real enemy….Our crime is a simple one. We are guilty of giving the poor the courage to organise the poor. We are guilty of trying to give ourselves human values. We are guilty of expressing our views. Those in power are determined not to take instruction from the poor. They are determined that the people shall not govern. What prospects are there for the rest of the country if the invasion of Kennedy Road is overlooked? … Our message to the movements, the academics, the churches and the human rights groups is this: We are calling for close and careful scrutiny into the nature of democracy in South Africa" (29th September 2009).

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SABC: ANC MP Turok raises concerns about Info Bill

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http://www.sabc.co.za/news/a/ce84e600492a88918c25ec964776ecc1/ANC-MP-Turok-raises-concerns-about-Info-Bill-20111123

ANC MP Turok raises concerns about Info Bill

ANC MP Ben Turok, one of the ruling party’s members who did not vote for the Protection of State Information Bill yesterday, has explained his stand. Turok says there have been many amendments to the Bill and that many MP’s don’t understand the latest version.

“What alarms me is that different people are placing different interpretations on this legislation. I think we should go forward and take more time and ensure that we all have the same understanding of the purpose of the Bill. The NCOP should delay it, we need another 6 months, we need a lot more consultation and we need that people, the public should read the damn thing,” says Turok.

Meanwhile, economists see passing of the Protection of State Information Bill as one of the factors in the continuing weakness of the rand.

Analysts say the National Assembly’s vote in favour of the so-called ‘secrecy bill’ is worrying investors, who fear it could make it easier for the government to hide corruption.

The rand has lost 21 % against the US dollar this year and is currently trading at weaker than R8.40 to the dollar. Investors are also worried by an inflation outlook that’s dampened hopes of a rate cut and the ongoing debt troubles in Europe and the United States.

What alarms me is that different people are placing different interpretation on this legislation. I think we should go forward and take more time and ensure that we all have the same understanding of the purpose of the bill

Civil Organisation – Abahlali Basemjondolo – has meanwhile reacted with disappointment at the National Assembly’s approval of the Protection of State Information Bill. Several political parties have also condemned Parliament’s decision and have said they will approach the Constitutional Court if President Jacob Zuma signs the Bill into law.

Abahlali’s Sbu Zikode says this Bill will take the country back to the days of apartheid as it seeks to take away journalists’ right to report freely.

Despite mass protests around the country and pleas to all Members of Parliament, the Protection of Information Bill was passed yesterday through the National Assembly. But, opposition party members have made it very clear that they will take their fight against the Bill all the way to the Constitutional Court to test its constitutionality.

The Times: Info bill protesters gather outside parliament

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http://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2011/11/22/info-bill-protesters-gather-outside-parliament

Info bill protesters gather outside parliament

About 600 people are protesting outside parliament against the ANC’s new secrecy law, which is likely to be passed by the National Assembly at 2pm today unless dozens of ANC MPs break ranks and vote against the Protection of State Information Bill.

Carrying placards proclaiming “Jou ma se secret” and “The truth will set us all free”, the protesters, which included grassroots community movements and journalists, said they were opposed to the bill.

A priest even offered to pray for a speedy recovery for State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele, whom he said was suffering from paranoia after he last week labelled groups opposed to the bill as “proxies” of foreign spies.

Earlier today, the Eastern Cape-based Unemployed Peoples’ Movement described the new law as an “onslaught against democracy and people’s dignity”.

“When the people protest because of the corrupt politicians who treat the poor with contempt and a lack of caring the ANC does not listen. Instead we are beaten, jailed, tortured and even killed. Who can forget Andries Tatane? Who can forget when the residents of Hangberg in Cape Town were jailed and shot at for refusing evictions? This is not democracy. There is no freedom if the people do not know what the government is doing in their name,” said the movement’s chairperson, Ayanda Kota.

“The arms deal and its cover-up was the point at which we first lost the freedom to know and it has got worse with the secrecy bill. Politicians want to be kings and queens and not the servants of the people. Just look at their blue-light cavalcades” Kota added.

Meanwhile, the University of Cape Town said it had blanked out its home page in protest against the bill.

“UCT opposes the lack of a ‘public interest defence’ in the current version of the bill. Without such a defence mechanism, for instance, members of the media would not be able to fulfil their role as a watchdog,” the university said in a statement.