Dear Comrades;
The ANC has been working on this bill for the past 15 years, a bill that was designed mainly to protect the apartheid state from the liberation movement by the apartheid government. And no this bill has nothing to do with regulating the media! The protection of information Act as promulgated in 1982 goes against the very grain of the Freedom Charter clause that says “All apartheid laws and practices shall be set aside”. Yet as the ANC when we implement elements of the Freedom Charter we are demonised. A Charter that is relevant when a majority black vote is wanted, they will even go to revolutionary historical sites like Kliptown, Soweto where the Freedom Charter was launched to lure our nation is their deceit that the deliver for all. Even go as far as window dressing a young unsuspecting black woman playing that age old trick they pulled on our fore-fathers by showing them the mirror and robbing them the lands. Post 1994 there has been increasing espionage some of which as a government have been made impossible to prosecute given the inadequacies of the apartheid Act of 1982. Companies, Identities and vital personal information have been stolen by domestic and foreign enemies at the expense of this untransformed legislation. Why is the local media behaving as proxy for these wrong doers? If people aren’t doing wrong or not getting information wrongly why are they protesting because the whistle blowers are protected in the current bill? It can only mean that they peddle with information once they get it to cause disunity in our government and further divide the ANC and its Allies confirming oppositional political proxies in some sections of the media. Some of us will not be fooled (many of us). This is what the legislation says in case the so-called constitutional democrats have forgotten and or selectively read our constitution (198): (a)* *National security must reflect the resolve of South Africans, as individuals and as a nation, to live as equals, to live in peace and harmony, to be free from fear and want and to seek a better life. (b) The resolve to live in peace and harmony precludes any South African citizen from participating in armed conflict, nationally or internationally, except as, provided for in terms of the Constitution or national legislation. (c)* *National security must be pursued in compliance with the law, including inter-. national law. (4) National security is subject to the authority of Parliament and the national executive. One of the cornerstones in the Bill is the alignment of the Promotion of Access to Information Act and Protection of Disclosures Act have been further enhanced as a further deterrent to the abuse of information classification of information. What make some people in the media squirm, is the corrupt nature of the manner that some of them get “tip offs”. For instance a corrupt civil servant or public representative will unlawfully disclose classified information to the media to avoid criminality and claim it is in the public interest to do so. The question is who determines such public interest? And if the courts find there is no such public interest after such damaging disclosure is made, the state will have no recourse as the damage will be long done as a result of the disclosure. Sikhumbuzo Thomo An activist from afar -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
