DATE=1/25/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=S-A-F / OPEN DEMOCRACY (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-258422
BYLINE=DELIA ROBERTSON
DATELINE=JOHANNESBURG
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: South Africa's African National Congress
(A-N-C)-dominated parliament has adopted a law
that grants citizens the right to information
held by government departments. However, as V-O-
A's Delia Robertson reports from our Johannesburg
bureau, unlike countries such as the United
Kingdom and the United States, in South Africa
the law will also accord similar rights to
government departments.
TEXT: While some opposition parties voted for
the new law, called the Promotion of Access to
Information Act, all objected to the clauses that
will, in certain circumstances, give South
African government departments the right to
information held by private individuals and
organizations.
The bill was enacted in terms of the Bill of
Rights in South Africa's constitution, which
requires that the law be in place by February 4th
as a measure to protect citizens against the
excesses of government. The opposition parties
say that by according rights of access to
information to the government, the ruling African
National Congress is trying to appropriate
fundamental human rights for itself.
Sheila Camerer of the New National Party says
that specific laws already ensure that the
government and other constitutional bodies such
as the Human Rights Commission have access to
information to fulfill their roles in protecting
civil society.
/// CAMERER ACT ///
Government should not try and employ a
constitutional provision designed to
protect people in civil society to gain
more rights and grab more power than is
strictly necessary against members of civil
society. If the state requires such
specific powers in legislation to invade
the privacy of persons, than this must be
tested against the limitations clause in
the constitution to establish if the
limitation in question is a reasonable and
justifiable one in an open and democratic
society.
/// END ACT ///
The A-N-C argues that by according the government
right of access to information, it is protecting
the poor and uneducated who are unable to
exercise their constitutional rights -
particularly against large and wealthy companies
that might seek to exploit them and even to cheat
them.
A-N-C member of parliament Jeremy Cronin, who is
also a senior official in the South African
Communist Party, says the government needs access
to private information only when it is necessary
to protect the interests of those still suffering
the effects of racial oppression.
/// CRONIN ACT ///
With this legislation we are seeking to
remedy a situation in which millions of
people are information deprived, because
they live in marginalized rural areas.
Because the racialized education
dispensation [education system] under which
they were schooled has left them semi-
literate. Because we live all of us in the
south and not in the north, because as the
case of the COSATU (Congress of South
African Trade Unions) general secretary
(sic), the white farm owner forbade your
birth to be registered when you were born,
and so to this day you don't know your own
exact age.
/// END ACT ///
The A-N-C's Johnny de Lange rejects the view of
opposition parties that the clause is
unconstitutional. He also said it does not give
the government any further powers but rather a
right somewhat more diluted than that granted to
private citizens.
/// DE LANGE ACT ///
The only way this can be enforced is if the
government body then goes to court and
says, please, we've complied with these
four requirements, give me this document.
Even then, if the court says you must give
it, you can take it on appeal to the
appellate division, you can then still take
it on appeal to the constitutional
division. This is the fundamental point
that we have a difference on. We are
saying that it is a right which is only
enforceable through the courts. And the
argument on the other side is that this is
a power which somehow diminishes the rights
of people.
/// END ACT ///
But opposition parties and observers alike have
welcomed the balance of the law, which further
extends the fundamental rights South Africans won
in 1994 when they voted to end the racially
oppressive system of apartheid. It will also
enable many to demand to see the information
gathered about them by the security police and
other organs of the former government.
The bill now goes to the National Council of
Provinces where it is also expected to pass
without any difficulty. Once that step is
complete, President Thabo Mbeki has until
February 4th to sign it into law. (Signed)
NEB/DR/GE/KL
25-Jan-2000 13:02 PM EDT (25-Jan-2000 1802 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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