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It is an unprecedented abuse of Parliamentary procedure and resources to create the two ANC committees announced today, purportedly to take further submissions on the rewritten Protection of State Information Bill.

If the ANC felt a genuine need to take new submissions on the redrafted Bill it would do so in a revived or reconstituted multi-party Ad Hoc committee established after a resolution taken by the National Assembly to refer the redrafted Bill back for further deliberation. The Bill in its rewritten form is on the Order Paper and before the House. The opportunity to comment on the redrafted Bill should be properly advertised, and hearings conducted in public in Parliament.

A veneer of public ventilation of the issues in provinces and “the remotest villages” will fool no-one. Consultative caravans like these are the time-honoured ANC method of manipulating public opinion and then presenting the pre-determined result as the voice of the people. The only question is which side of the divided ANC will predetermine the result. Submissions taken by a secretariat serving only the ANC study group will likewise emerge manipulated and massaged to suit whichever faction is in the ascendancy.

The DA is conveying its objection to the ANC in Parliament through the whippery. If the ANC persists in this abuse of taxpayers’ money, we suggest civil society should lodge its protest using the same addresses announced by the ANC today, including infobill@parliament.gov.za.