OPPOSITION parties tried desperately to stop the National Assembly from voting on the contentious Protection of State Information Bill yesterday but failed.
ANC MPs voted to pass the bill by 229 votes, against 107. There were two abstentions.
After it was passed, editors, journalists and other activists - who had won black attire in what was dubbed "Black Tuesday" to symbolise the "death of democracy" - all left the National Assembly chamber in silent protest.
"We are broken inside. We never thought there would come a day when we would come here to Parliament dressed in black to actually witness this constitution of ours being betrayed," said South African National Editors' Forum (Sanef) chairman Mondli Makhanya.
"We (as Sanef) will go to the highest court in the land should Zuma sign it (into law), but we hope that even he (Zuma) will see reason and not sign it when it eventually comes before him."
DA chief whip Watty Watson kicked off an afternoon of high drama in the House when he introduced a motion without notice, asking Parliament to remove from its programme the planned vote on the bill.
Watson was supported by the IFP and Cope, but the ANC MPs heckled strongly in disagreement. The matter was put to the first vote of the afternoon.
When the report of the ad hoc committee was finally adopted, the IFP's Mario Ambrosini - who tried to delay the passage of the bill last week by introducing 123 extra amendments - stood up to argue that Parliament had overstretched its mandate in processing the bill.
". we are rolling back the frontiers of freedom against the will of the South African people," he said.
DA parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko described the bill as an attempt to criminalise hard-won freedoms and said her party would lead its challenge in the Constitutional Court if it gets to that stage.
"The ANC has abandoned the values of its founders exactly 100 years after it was formed," she said.
Joe McGluwa of the Independent Democrats warned ANC MPs that they would one day regret their support of the proposed law.
PAC President Letlapa Mphahlele said, if passed, the mooted state protection of information law would turn South Africa into a "banana republic".
ANC MP Luwellyn Landers - who chaired the ad hoc committee that processed the bill - dismissed those arguing for the insertion of a public interest clause, saying the bill contained the same public interest defence mechanism as the Promotion of Access to Information Act.
The new secrecy law will see PW Botha's 1982 Protection of Information Act removed from the statute books.
But IFP chief whip Koos van der Merwe pointed out that when Botha enacted his secrecy laws in 1982, Landers had been a National Party member and a deputy minister in Botha's apartheid cabinet.
About 700 people protested outside Parliament for four hours yesterday, their songs of dissent reaching a fever pitch as ANC MPs voted in favour of the bill inside the National Assembly's soundproof chamber.
"We want corruption behind bars, not whistle-blowers," a group chanted, while a priest held up a placard reading "Minister Cwele: Paranoia is an illness. I am available for prayer."
Another accused President Jacob Zuma and State Security minister Siyabonga Cwele of "raping freedom".
Opposition parties furious over approval of secrecy bill
OPPOSITION parties tried desperately to stop the National Assembly from voting on the contentious Protection of State Information Bill yesterday but failed.
ANC MPs voted to pass the bill by 229 votes, against 107. There were two abstentions.
After it was passed, editors, journalists and other activists - who had won black attire in what was dubbed "Black Tuesday" to symbolise the "death of democracy" - all left the National Assembly chamber in silent protest.
"We are broken inside. We never thought there would come a day when we would come here to Parliament dressed in black to actually witness this constitution of ours being betrayed," said South African National Editors' Forum (Sanef) chairman Mondli Makhanya.
"We (as Sanef) will go to the highest court in the land should Zuma sign it (into law), but we hope that even he (Zuma) will see reason and not sign it when it eventually comes before him."
DA chief whip Watty Watson kicked off an afternoon of high drama in the House when he introduced a motion without notice, asking Parliament to remove from its programme the planned vote on the bill.
Watson was supported by the IFP and Cope, but the ANC MPs heckled strongly in disagreement. The matter was put to the first vote of the afternoon.
When the report of the ad hoc committee was finally adopted, the IFP's Mario Ambrosini - who tried to delay the passage of the bill last week by introducing 123 extra amendments - stood up to argue that Parliament had overstretched its mandate in processing the bill.
". we are rolling back the frontiers of freedom against the will of the South African people," he said.
DA parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko described the bill as an attempt to criminalise hard-won freedoms and said her party would lead its challenge in the Constitutional Court if it gets to that stage.
"The ANC has abandoned the values of its founders exactly 100 years after it was formed," she said.
Joe McGluwa of the Independent Democrats warned ANC MPs that they would one day regret their support of the proposed law.
PAC President Letlapa Mphahlele said, if passed, the mooted state protection of information law would turn South Africa into a "banana republic".
ANC MP Luwellyn Landers - who chaired the ad hoc committee that processed the bill - dismissed those arguing for the insertion of a public interest clause, saying the bill contained the same public interest defence mechanism as the Promotion of Access to Information Act.
The new secrecy law will see PW Botha's 1982 Protection of Information Act removed from the statute books.
But IFP chief whip Koos van der Merwe pointed out that when Botha enacted his secrecy laws in 1982, Landers had been a National Party member and a deputy minister in Botha's apartheid cabinet.
About 700 people protested outside Parliament for four hours yesterday, their songs of dissent reaching a fever pitch as ANC MPs voted in favour of the bill inside the National Assembly's soundproof chamber.
"We want corruption behind bars, not whistle-blowers," a group chanted, while a priest held up a placard reading "Minister Cwele: Paranoia is an illness. I am available for prayer."
Another accused President Jacob Zuma and State Security minister Siyabonga Cwele of "raping freedom".
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