Furore over Mbeki's R90m wall

2007-02-22 07:46

Johannesburg - Using an apartheid-era law to restrict information about an alleged R90m fence around President Thabo Mbeki's official residence was "concerning," the SA National Editors Forum (Sanef) has said.

Sanef reacted on Wednesday to a report in The Citizen newspaper in which department of public works spokesperson Thami Mchunu said the Bryntirion government estate in Pretoria was a national key point.

A "comprehensive security upgrade" was part of routine security and maintenance of state assets and Mchunu would not divulge costs, the newspaper said.

Sanef said that the National Key Points Act was an apartheid-era law that had no place in a democratic South Africa and had asked government for its removal from the statute book, said Raymond Louw, chairperson of the Sanef media freedom committee.

"It is outrageous that a government department should now invoke the act to prevent information from being disseminated to the public."

"Sanef's concern is that here, as in Zimbabwe, the government is resorting to apartheid government censorship to prevent the public from knowing what's going on."

Opposition parties have demanded explanations for the apparent plans to erect an R90m security wall around the complex.

The forum feared South Africa might start "a perilous descent into further censorship" if the ban on information under the act was not withdrawn.

The act stipulates that no information or photograph of a National Key Point could be published without official permission.

However, the key points had never been publicly listed, Louw said.

Attempts over past years to invoke the act to prevent photographs of certain incidents had been withdrawn when protests were raised, he said.

The residences of Mbeki, the deputy president and cabinet ministers are situated on the 100-year-old estate.

- SAPA