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
.