South Africa

CAPE TOWN – The ANC bowed to pressure on the Protection of State Information, proposing a raft of changes in response to sustained criticism of the bill over the past two years. These include a compromise on a public interest defence as a way of protecting journalists and whistle-blowers who risk prison to expose state wrongdoing. ANC members of the National Council of Provinces' ad hoc committee processing the bill proposed that section 43, which criminalises revealing classified information, makes an explicit exception for cases where "such disclosure reveals criminal activity". Under the proposal, this section would also enable those charged with disclosure to argue in their defence that the information is wrongly classified to begin with. The ANC also moved to amend section 49 of the draft act, which has been widely criticised for criminalising the disclosure of information relating to any state security matter. The proposed change would make it a crime only to reveal classified state information relating to security matters. These two sections are among those singled out for criticism by Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi in a submission to Parliament in late March when he threatened to challenge the bill in the Constitutional Court unless it were rewritten.

CAPE TOWN – Opposition MPs are urging government to take firmer action on service delivery problems, warning that the situation is spiralling out of control. Congress of the People MP Juli Kilian says even the staunchest ANC loyalist cannot but admit that local government has sunk beyond crisis [levels]. Speaking during debate in the National Assembly on the co-operative governance and traditional affairs department's R54.7-billion budget, she says the situation is "frighteningly reminiscent of South Africa in the late 1980s". Her remarks come against a backdrop of service delivery protests in at least four locations around the country, including a municipal building set alight at Barkly West, in the Northern Cape, and a school on fire at Tlapeng, in North West. The South African Police Service also reports that residents of Kwa Thema, near Springs, and protesters from Sir Lowry's Village, in the Western Cape, had barricaded streets in their areas with burning tyres. Democratic Alliance MP John Steenhuisen says "drastic steps" are needed to reform local government. The country is facing service delivery protests at a rate, on average, of two a week.

CAPE TOWN – State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele says his ministry will not hesitate to take action on those in its ranks found to be involved in fraud and corruption. Briefing the media ahead of his Budget Vote in Parliament, Cwele says the fight against fraud and corruption remained one of his ministry’s top priorities. “This is a cancer that steals from the most vulnerable people in our society,” the minister says. Cwele adds that in order for the agency to be effective in fighting corruption in other state departments, the security cluster first needed to start within its own departments. Vetting, Cwele says, is one strategy to deal with corruption and the agency is also part of the Anti-Corruption Task Team. The ministry will focus its energies on improving its vetting system. This would include a new strategy of vetting, through automation of the vetting process and introduction of a continuous process of vetting other than periodic vetting. This is expected to reduce backlogs in the vetting system. Vetting field units will also be rolled out, he says. Turning to other issues, Cwele said trans-national crimes such as human smuggling remained a challenge and the ministry is working with its SADC partners in this regard. With regard to the Protection of State Information Bill, Cwele says it is now in the hands of the legislators but the ministry will continue to interact with the process in the National Council of Provinces.

JOHANNESBURG – Auditor-General Terence Nombembe criticises government and public servants for a weakening of the pillars of governance protecting South Africa’s democracy. He also expresses concern about the vulnerability of his office because of growing lack of support from government regarding his warning about this deterioration. Nombembe says management supply chains, service delivery, the security of government information and accuracy of government reports are deteriorating. “Things are serious, and they are even more serious than we thought they [were],” he reports. “They are more serious because the people employed by government to do work are least prepared and equipped to do it. The situation is dire. We are equally as vulnerable as those countries where the auditor-general has limited scope to do his or her work because what we are saying is not taken seriously – not by the government, not by ourselves and those who need to do something about it.” He says his office will soon release the audit results for local municipalities, and he expressed his dismay at them. He says the people voted into power were slow in taking responsibility for what they had been voted in for. “Accountability for the results is not taken as seriously as it should be. Bad results are regarded as a norm and when people get a disclaimer or qualified reports, little happens to them to show that this is unacceptable. This is the culture we need to be concerned about,” he says.

JOHANNESBURG – The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) has vowed to stop at nothing to have expelled leader Julius Malema, suspended secretary-general Sindiso Magaqa and spokesperson Floyd Shivambu reinstated. National working committee member Abner Mosase says the leaders of the ANCYL should be reinstated. “If [the ANC] does not reinstate them, we will not stop trying. We will continue using all our available internal mechanisms. Every time they meet, we will be on their backs persuading them to listen to this logic,” Mosase says. Deputy secretary-general Kenetswe Mosenogi says the league is calling on the ANC’s leaders to intervene in the National Disciplinary Committee of Appeal’s (NDCA’s) decision to expel Malema and suspend Magaqa and Shivambu. “The observations made by the NDCA undermine the autonomy of the ANCYL. The National Executive Committee . . . calls on the leadership of the ANC to decisively intervene and provide a political solution. We will continue to challenge the outcomes internally in the ANC until the national conference in December.” Asked if the ANCYL thought the ANC would listen, Mosase says the league is confident that “supreme logic and content” will prevail. He also says the ANCYL is confident that ANC leaders will reinstate Malema, Magaqa and Shivambu. ANCYL deputy president Ronald Lamola confirms the league is still in touch with Malema and that he, Magaqa and Shivambu remain disciplined members and supporters of the ANC.

Africa & the world

JUBA – South Sudan says it is ready to reopen negotiations immediately with its northern neighbour Sudan to try to resolve oil, security and frontier disputes that ignited border fighting last month. Minister of Cabinet Affairs Deng Alor says his country, which became independent from Sudan last year, is committed to complying with a UN Security Council resolution that calls on both countries to negotiate their differences peacefully or face sanctions. "We are ready to go for negotiations any time ... I expect negotiations to resume any time from now," Alor told a news conference in the South Sudanese capital Juba. The May 2 Security Council resolution endorsed an African Union plan demanding that Khartoum and Juba cease hostilities, withdraw troops from disputed areas and resume talks within two weeks on all outstanding disputes. It gave them three months to resolve the issues under threat of sanctions. South Sudan accuses Sudan's armed forces of carrying out fresh bombing raids on border areas. Khartoum routinely denies such accusations. But Alor says the new attacks alleged by his government did not affect its commitment to resume talks with Sudan on the thorny issues of oil exports, security, border demarcation and citizenship that remains unresolved since South Sudan became the world's newest independent nation last year.

KHARTOUM – Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir says he will not allow conflict with South Sudan to overshadow “strategic relations” with its people, striking a less confrontational tone over a crisis that has raised fears of war. After South Sudan seized the contested Heglig oilfield last month, Bashir vowed to free the South’s citizens from the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement whom he called “insects”. During a month of conflict, the United Nations condemned Sudan’s air strikes on South Sudan’s territory and international pressure forced the South to withdraw from Heglig. The fighting prompted the UN Security Council to pass a resolution threatening sanctions if they did not follow an African Union roadmap to stop fighting and return to talks. Bashir says the South Sudanese government’s “infringements” on Sudanese territory “and their muddying of the neighbourly, brotherly relations between the two countries in a blatant way will not deflect us from our view of the future and our strategic relations with the people of South Sudan”. “. . . We look with wisdom and foresight to well-established relations between us and the people of South Sudan,” says Bashir. Khartoum and Juba say they have accepted the resolution. But Sudan says it could find difficulty in implementing “parts” of it while South Sudanese troops are still inside its territory and reserve the right to defend its land. South Sudan says these areas are its own.