Please note that the "papers" that were sent out this morning and which referred to the Protection of State Information Act (POSIB) are Act forms (that is, draft Acts).

You would have noticed that other Act forms (Bills passed by Parliament during the last term, including the Financial Services Laws General Amendment Bill and the South African Weather Service Amendment Bill), were also circulated, together with the POSIB as Act forms.
 
Act forms are the product of bills passed by Parliament.
 
Each bill passed is converted into an Act form, with the official language text on opposite pages.
 
Act forms, basically, have no status until and unless assented to by the President (by publication in the Government Gazette, and by submission of the signed copy to the Constitutional Court for safekeeping, in terms of the Constitution).
 
The draft Acts are packaged in this manner - as Acts - as part of a practice dating back to 1994.
 
You will know that Bills sent to the President are not for re-writing. The Secretary to Parliament sends the Act forms to the President for assent.
 
The term "Act form", is used, since it is not assented to yet, and therefore even the Act number on the cover page may eventually be changed, depending on what the President decides. It is for example possible for the President to refer Bills back to Parliament.