Today Patricia de Lille, Mayor of Cape Town, Lindiwe Mazibuko, DA Parliamentary Leader, and I am launching the Democratic Alliance’s e-mobilisation campaign to stop the Secrecy Bill in its current form.

The DA has consistently argued for the inclusion of a “public interest” defence clause, to protect those who possess or publish information which is in the public interest. When the Bill was rammed through Parliament last month, without this important clause, we said we would not give up the fight.

The DA’s e-mobilisation campaign will reach out to our extended network of millions of South Africans, and ask them to get involved in pressurising the government to withdraw the Bill in its current form.

Today we will be signing a generic letter to the President that all South Africans can download from the DA's website, sign, and email to the President’s office. We will also be signing a petition that we will send to the President if the Bill passed through the National Council of Provinces without the necessary amendments, asking him not to sign the Bill into law. South Africans can also help by registering their concerns with the Presidential Hotline on 17737, or by organising a flash mob to raise public awareness and support around this issue. We have already staged seven flash mobs at events around the country, and we know of at least forty more flash mobs planned in the coming months.

We call on all South Africans to support this mobilisation campaign by signing the petition, sending the letter to the President, and by calling his office. The full details of how South Africans can get involved can be found at www.da.org.za/campaigns.htm.

On the 22nd of November, Black Tuesday, the ANC ignored South Africa and voted for the Secrecy Bill. We must now join together and send them a message that they can’t ignore. This Bill, without a public interest defence clause, has no place in a constitutional democracy.

Apart from this mobilisation campaign, we will continue to propose crucial amendments in the NCOP. If the DA’s amendments in the NCOP are rejected, and the Bill is sent to the President for assent, we will petition the President to refer the law back to the National Assembly.

Should all other avenues be exhausted, we will invoke Section 80 of the Constitution for the first time in South Africa’s history. Section 80 allows Members of Parliament to refer a Bill directly to Constitutional Court should such an application be supported by at least one third of the members of the National Assembly, and be made within 30 days of the President assenting to and signing the Act

Finally, the DA will resist implementing the Bill where it governs as far as possible. Transparency, openness and accountability will remain hallmarks of DA governments.

In the end, a sustained increase in public pressure may be what it takes to get the ANC to withdraw the Bill in its current form. We will play our part in mobilising the South African people against the Bill.

We have not given up the fight.