Safety and security minister Charles Nqakula says Ms Mamotsieng Mokone's death in last weeks bomb blasts in Soweto, Gauteng must be a reminder to all peace and freedom-loving South Africans that the democratic dispensation and all that it stands for needs to be defended at all times.

Introducing the Explosives Bill in Parliament, Cape Town yesterday, the minister pointed out that the arsenal required for the defense of democracy included the legislation as contained in the Bill.

Ms Mokone's common-law husband Mr Simon Mokhathi sustained serious injuries from shrapnel that hit their shack in the informal settlement of Protea South in Soweto, last Wednesday.

Minister Nqakula said that in order to protect everybody, nationals and non-nationals, government needed effective and ever-improving laws.

'Explosives in wrong hands pose a serious threat to society, whether these are in the possession of a criminal or in the hands of a person who does not possess the necessary knowledge and capabilities to handle explosives safely and appropriately,' said Minister Nqakula.

He explained that the Bill sought to tighten control over the use and manufacture of explosives, and put in place an instrument to impose sever penalties for explosives-related offences.

It also empowers police to take fingerprints and bodily samples of suspects for investigative purposes.

According to Minister Nqakula, the Explosive Bill together with the Firearms Control Act and the Anti-Terrorism Bill, are building blocks in the legislative framework required to create the envisaged safe and secure environment for all people, in terms of the country's vision of peace and stability. - BuaNews