Deputy Speaker, I was one of the few people who were enormously privileged to sit in the public gallery and listen to former President Nelson Mandela deliver his first state of the nation address in this Parliament.
In his address, Nelson Mandela outlined a vision that he hoped would inspire the future of South Africa. Part of that vision was of a government whose very purpose was the extension of the frontiers of freedom. Yet, here we are, 17 years later, rolling back the very frontiers of freedom that Nelson Mandela so hoped would inspire the future of South Africa.
I have no doubt that if Nelson Mandela were present here today he would have had the courage to join the opposition in speaking out against the Secrecy Bill ... [Applause.] ... because the fact is that, in the end, the Secrecy Bill amounts to a full-scale legislative assault on the freedom of the press and the media in South Africa.
The Secrecy Bill criminalises the possession of classified documents, even if the contents of the documents reveal wrongdoing, and exposing the contents of the documents would be in the public's interest.
The Secrecy Bill also criminalises the disclosure of the contents of classified documents, even if the contents of the documents reveal wrongdoing ... [Interjection.]