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The push-back yesterday by Minister of State Security, Siyabonga Cwele, is a serious blow to the hard work the Ad Hoc Committee on the Protection of State Information Bill has put into bringing the Bill in line with the Constitution.

The Minister is unhappy with vital amendments to the Bill that have already been made by the Committee.

Of particular concern is the fact that he wishes to bring back the controversial clause 1(4), which would allow the Secrecy Bill to trump the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA). This would make the Secrecy Bill the be all and end all on whether state information can be accessed.

If this wasn’t bad enough, he also asked that the Committee remove the blanket protection given in clause 43, which would protect those who published classified information to expose a crime. He also wanted to bring back the five-year prison sentence for anyone who disclosed classified information.

The proposals presented by the Minister, if agreed to by the ANC MPs, would in effect destroy all the hard work the Committee has done to ensure that this Bill protects freedom of the press and access to information.

The DA will do everything in our power to prevent this from happening.

There is still more work to be done to ensure that this Bill is acceptable and in line with the Constitution.

The DA will not agree to the Minister’s proposals if these are brought forward by the ANC in the upcoming deliberations.