Speaker, on behalf of Cope I wish to express our serious concern about attempts by the Minister of State Security to persuade the NCOP Ad Hoc Committee to reinstate draconian clauses of the secrecy Bill that were removed or amended during extended and painstaking negotiations, public hearings and deliberations.
By moving in at this stage, the hon Minister is acting like an executive enforcer to ensure that securocratic control becomes entrenched in South Africa by leaning on the legislative arm and ANC parliamentarians to dance to his tune.
In the process, he is also relegating the extended consultations and public participation hearings, et cetera, into a public sham. He has decided in advance what the executive wants, by a way of statute: to shut down access to information and to silence the media, regardless of what the people, including prominent struggle veterans like Advocate George Bizos, had to say. This is yet another example of unmitigated interference in the parliamentary process, which is an independent pillar of our constitutional democracy. As the Opposition, we would like to record our strongest opposition and express our total dissatisfaction with the Minister's attempt to close down reasonable and necessary channels of information flow that will never pass the test of constitutionality.
We therefore call on the patriotic conscience of every Member of Parliament to resist party pressures and reject totalitarian, unconstitutional legislation. [Time expired.]