Free speech in trouble in South Africa

23 November 2011 by

South Africa’s Protection of Information Bill is about to be transformed into a new secrecy law as it was pushed through parliament yesterday, Jan Raath reports in the Times. See our previous post on the details of the law’s scope and potential chilling effect on investigative journalism and whistleblowers.

In essence, if this bill becomes law it would allow any organ of state, from the largest government department down to the smallest municipality, to classify any document as secret and set out harsh penalties of up to 25 years in jail for whistleblowers.

Raath quotes Siyabonga Cwele, the Security Minister, as declaring last week that South Africa had been under

an increased threat of espionage since 1994 when it adopted a non-racial democratic Constitution. He denounced opponents of the Bill as “proxies of foreign spies”.

The South African weekly Mail and Guardian, thorn in the side of the current government and the apartheid regime alike, is running a fascinating column on what it calls the “story killer”, cataloguing the “hypothetical body count” of the stories that would never have seen the light of day if the law had been in force at the time.  But even this courageous newspaper had to redact significant sections of a recent report said to detail fresh evidence of corruption in an arms deal allegedly involving President Zuma’s spokesman Mac Maharaj (pictured above). This was in response to threats made by Maharaj’s lawyer under the current gagging law, a provision under the national prosecuting process which makes it an offence to disclose certain information gathered in the course of an investigation, irrespective of public interest.  The Protection of State Information Bill will make it even more difficult to publish such stories.

“I think what has happened this week gives you a very clear sense of what it’s going to be like under the Secrecy Law if it’s adopted without a public interest defence”, says Mail and Guardian editor Nic Dawes.

It’s going to force newspapers and even activists and other people who want to get information out to the public to hold back when they  really should be exposing serious crimes, corruption, maladministration, hypocrisy and it really goes against every fibre of a journalistic being and the core value of the constitution to impose that kind of limitation

The Bill has to go through a few more hurdles; in South African parlance it will now go to National Council of Provinces and then back to the National Assembly before the president signs it and it gets gazetted. But the Mail reports that things don’t look good:

Sources within Parliament say that, despite protest from media and civil groups from around the country, the passing of the Bill is a foregone conclusion and that it may become law before the end of the year.

The nationwide protests and the vociferous objections to the bill in Parliament have therefore probably been to no avail. It is always open to those who oppose the Bill to take a challenge in the Constitutional Court, but as politician and former Minister Kadar Asmal pointed out before his death earlier this year, it is “unsatisfactory” to expect the Constitutional Court to do the work that Parliament should be doing.
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3 comments


  1. I AM SOUTH AFRICAN AND HAVE LIVED IN ENGLAND FOR 10 YEARS AND CAME HERE SO I COULD ENJOY MY FULL RIGHTS AS A HUMAN BEING. I FEAR THE WORST NOW FOR MY FAMILY BACK HOME AS THESE NEW LAWS ARE FRIGHTFUL AND THEY LEAVE NO ONE WITH A VOICE TO FIGHT AGAINST TYRANNY AND OPPRESSION. THE POWERFUL, RICH AND PRIVILEDGED WILL PROSPER WITHOUT FEAR OF UPRISING AND EVERYONE ELSE WILL SUFFER WITHOUT A PLATFORM TO SPEAK FROM.

  2. Mark Cook says:

    One could run an equally fascinating blog listing stories that would never have seen daylight in the UK if journalists hadn’t broken criminal law and ‘hacked’ MPs private telephone conversations : still, with Mr. Blair’s company bidding for ‘Governance’ contracts in Africa , this sad, peculiar continent will soon be as free of corruption, arms dealing and nepotism as we are in Blighty :)

  3. Outrageous.

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Aarhus Abortion Abu Qatada Abuse Access to justice administrative court adoption ALBA Allison Bailey Al Qaeda animal rights anonymity Appeals Article 1 Protocol 1 Article 2 article 3 Article 4 article 5 Article 6 Article 7 Article 8 Article 9 article 10 Article 11 article 13 Article 14 Artificial Intelligence Asbestos assisted suicide asylum Australia autism benefits Bill of Rights biotechnology blogging Bloody Sunday brexit Bribery Catholicism Chagos Islanders charities Children children's rights China christianity citizenship civil liberties campaigners climate change clinical negligence Coercion common law confidentiality consent conservation constitution contempt of court Control orders Copyright coronavirus Coroners costs court of appeal Court of Protection covid crime Cybersecurity Damages Dartmoor data protection death penalty defamation deportation deprivation of liberty Detention diplomatic immunity disability disclosure Discrimination disease divorce DNA domestic violence duty of candour duty of care ECHR ECtHR Education election Employment Employment Law Employment Tribunal enforcement Environment Equality Act Ethiopia EU EU Charter of Fundamental Rights EU costs EU law European Court of Justice evidence extradition extraordinary rendition Family Fertility FGM Finance football foreign criminals foreign office France freedom of assembly Freedom of Expression freedom of information freedom of speech Gay marriage Gaza gender Gender Recognition Act genetics Germany gmc Google government Grenfell Health healthcare high court HIV home office Housing HRLA human rights Human Rights Act human rights news Huntington's Disease immigration India Indonesia injunction Inquests international law internet Inuit Iran Iraq Ireland Islam Israel Italy IVF Jalla v Shell Japan Japanese Knotweed Judaism judicial review jury trial JUSTICE Justice and Security Bill Land Reform Law Pod UK legal aid legal ethics legality Leveson Inquiry LGBTQ Rights liability Libel Liberty Libya Lithuania local authorities marriage Maya Forstater mental capacity Mental Health military Ministry of Justice modern slavery monitoring murder music Muslim nationality national security NHS Northern Ireland nuclear challenges nuisance Obituary ouster clauses parental rights parliamentary expenses scandal Parole patents Pensions Personal Injury Piracy Plagiarism planning Poland Police Politics pollution press Prisoners Prisons privacy Private Property Professional Discipline Property proportionality Protection of Freedoms Bill Protest Public/Private public access public authorities public inquiries public law Regulatory Proceedings rehabilitation Reith Lectures Religion RightsInfo Right to assembly right to die right to family life Right to Privacy Right to Roam right to swim riots Roma Romania Round Up Royals Russia Saudi Arabia Scotland secrecy secret justice Sex sexual offence sexual orientation Sikhism Smoking social media Social Work South Africa Spain special advocates Sports Standing statelessness Statutory Interpretation stop and search Strasbourg Supreme Court Supreme Court of Canada surrogacy surveillance Syria Tax technology Terrorism tort Torture Transgender travel treaty TTIP Turkey UK Ukraine UK Supreme Court unduly harsh united nations unlawful detention USA US Supreme Court vicarious liability Wales War Crimes Wars Welfare Western Sahara Whistleblowing Wikileaks Wild Camping wind farms WomenInLaw YearInReview Zimbabwe
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