... particularly from the DA, are giving people wrong views, to the effect that this Act has no place. The part of the Act that is not in line with the Constitution is going to be repealed, but the National Key Points Act, as an Act, is here to stay. Don't fool people. [Applause.]
Protecting and ensuring the resilience of critical infrastructure and key resources of our country is essential to the nation's security, public safety, economic vitality and way of life. Risk in the 21st century results from a complex mix of man-made and naturally occurring threats and hazards, including terrorist attacks, accidents, natural disasters and other emergencies.
Within this context, our critical infrastructure and key resources may be directly exposed to an event, or indirectly exposed, as a result of dependency or interdependencies amongst them. It is imperative that national priorities include preventing catastrophic loss of life, protecting our national assets, and thwarting any attempt to disrupt the functioning of our national economy.
Achieving this goal requires a strategy that appropriately balances resilience - our strength in adverse times - with focused, risk-informed prevention, protection and preparedness activities so that we can manage and reduce the more serious risks that we face. These concepts represent the pillars of our Critical Infrastructure Protection Plan.
Over the last two decades, numerous states have highlighted the role of critical infrastructure protection in their respective national security strategies. This continues to be a significant issue for many countries around the world, with attention currently increasingly centred on information infrastructure protection related primarily to cyber security, energy infrastructure protection, and challenges related to public-private partnership. [Interjections.]
This exposes the DA's lie that the issue about protecting critical infrastructure is an apartheid matter. [Interjections.] It is a matter for all states, everywhere in the world. We are going to protect our infrastructure. Direct terrorist attacks and natural, man-made or technological hazards could produce catastrophic losses in terms of human casualties, property destruction and economic effects, as well as cause profound damage to public morale and confidence.
The protection of critical infrastructure is deemed necessary not only from the possible commonly identified physical threats such as terrorism, but also from other potential threats such as organised and cyber crime, and national disasters.
South Africa regulates what other countries refer to as critical infrastructure through the National Key Points Act. Since the implementation of the Act, the SA Police Service has established a committee that is responsible for the administering of this Act.
All institutions that we have classified as such would fall broadly within the international definition of "critical infrastructure". South Africa, like many countries across the globe, relies on private-public partnership for the implementation of the Act. This is so because, in many instances, critical infrastructure falls within private hands though they are of international importance.
The current National Key Points Act is under review, as we said, and we are going to ensure that it is brought into line with the Constitution. But, do not go and tell lies to people to the effect that it will disappear ... that some Zorro will come with some unnatural powers and make it disappear. It won't disappear. Thank you very much. [Applause.]