Motlanthe: Info bill likely going to ConCourt
2012-08-29 22:11
Cape Town - It would be wise for President Jacob Zuma to refer the controversial Protection of State Information Bill to the Constitutional Court for certification, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe said on Wednesday.
"We would not hesitate to say to the president 'send it to the Constitutional Court for certification before assenting to it'," Motlanthe told journalists in Cape Town.
"That is almost a given, given the amount of controversy that has surrounded this process. That is the way to go."
Motlanthe's comments came a few hours after the ANC made significant further concessions on the classification bill.
The bill has sparked two years of sustained protest and has resulted in media houses, activists and the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) threaten to challenge it in the Constitutional Court.
The ANC's proposals included removing a clause which prohibited the disclosure of any state security matter, and which had been criticised by opponents as raising the spectre of returning South Africa to apartheid era secrecy by drawing a veil over the workings of the intelligence community.
- SAPA
