Delivery issues dominate hearings

SERVICE delivery issues took centre stage during public hearings on the Protection of Information Bill in Mamelodi, east of Pretoria, yesterday.

Instead of expressing their feelings on the proposed bill, which seeks to make it a criminal offence to reveal classified state information, most people who attended the proceedings talked about how the State was failing them.

The issue of the government's failure to control foreigners living in the country also topped the list. "During apartheid, no one would see a situation where people from outside this country would come and do as they please," said one attendant, amid cheering from about 1,000 people who attended at the International Assembly of God.

The community also raised concerns about the illegal occupation of many RDP houses in the township.

The residents said it was rare for community leaders in the area to hold public meetings with them and they had to use yesterday's opportunity to express their anger.

Tshwane DA leader Solly Msimanga said the bill amounted to a full-scale legislative assault on the freedom of the country and robs South Africans of their basic right to know what their government is up to.

"It offends the very basic constitutional rights of access to information and freedom of expression," he said.

The bill, in its current form, is opposed by every opposition party in Parliament. It is also opposed by Cosatu, Samwu and Sadtu, by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, and the Right to Know Campaign, a collective civil society group representing more than 400 organisations.

Meanwhile, there were mixed reactions among political parties and civic organisations yesterday, during the public hearings of the Protection of Information Bill in Sharpeville in the Vaal.

Chairman of the National Council of Provinces' ad hoc committee on the bill Nosipho Ntwanambi had her hands full trying to bring the house to order. ANC delegates and its tripartite alliance partners Cosatu and SACP boldly told the packed Rhoda Yende Hall that they support the bill.

ANC representative Sello Pitso said: "I welcome the bill, it will help make South Africa a better country. It will not victimise the citizens of this country."

Bheki Ntsele attacked the print media, claiming that it was hiding behind the public interest.

"Every citizen of this country has rights. It is not fair for the newspaper to report about people's health like they did with Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and the report on Kgalema Motlanthe that he fathered a child in Limpopo," Ntsele said.

- Sowetan