The secrecy bill could end reporting that serves the public, writes Wendy Jasson da Costa.
|||Over the past two years, much has been said about the Protection of State Information Bill and its negative impact on the media.
Those opposed to it are calling for the inclusion of a public interest defence so that journalists and whistle-blowers are protected.
The public hearings about the bill, nicknamed the Secrecy Bill, come to Durban this week.
In the meantime, the long-awaited Manase report on the financial affairs of the eThekwini municipality has dominated headlines in KwaZulu-Natal in the past week.
High-profile individuals, as high as former municipal manager Michael Sutcliffe and ex-mayor Obed Mlaba, have been fingered as having been party to or aware of rampant maladministration and financial irregularities in the eThekwini municipality.
The impact of the findings is wide because, as the only metro and home to the largest ANC region in the province, Durban and its municipality hold a lot of sway in KwaZulu-Natal politics.
In fact, whoever controls eThekwini controls KwaZulu-Natal.
So what does this have to do with the Protection of State Information Bill? Over the past two or three years leading up to the release of the Manase findings, The Mercury has consistently published stories about how ratepayers’ money has been spent in the municipality. Most of these stories, which unveiled wrongdoings, would, not have seen the light of day if whistle-blowers and insiders had not bitten the bullet and put their jobs – and sometimes their lives – at risk to assist reporters with information.
Some of the issues which were dealt with in the Manase report and which were covered by The Mercury include:
** The excessive and unqualified use of Section 36, a provision in the supply-chain management policy that allows for the awarding of contracts in exceptional circumstances without following the normal tender procedures.
Some of the stories relating to Section 36 and which would not make it into the public domain if the bill becomes law include revelations that the former ANC chairman in the region, John Mchunu, was a multimillion-rand beneficiary of Section 36 contracts, and that the daughter of former eThekwini mayor Obed Mlaba had a multimillion-rand toilet container contract with the municipality.
The Manase report found that Mlaba had interfered in the awarding of a R3-billion waste-volume reduction tender. Before that, The Mercury uncovered that Mlaba’s two daughters were shareholders in the company that was awarded the contract.
Once it made headlines, the contract didn’t get off the ground.
** The Manase report found irregular expenditure in the housing department totalling R428 million, and senior officials and politicians were implicated.
Two years before, The Mercury found that certain building contractors, like Zikhulise, were being granted contracts by the municipality despite shoddy workmanship and the fact that in some instances, the houses were uninhabitable and potentially life threatening.
If the Secrecy Bill becomes law, the whistle-blowers and journalists who had the documents proving payments and contracts in this regard, could be jailed.
** The Manase report called for an investigation into overtime claims in the metro police department. Although the municipality has yet to reveal its overtime bill, whistle-blowers helped The Mercury reveal that officers had doubled, and in some cases even trebled, their salaries over December by claiming overtime.
** Both the Manase report and Auditor-General Terence Nombembe’s 2009/10 report detailed how councillors in eThekwini were doing business with the municipality, in direct contravention of the Municipal Finance Management Act.
The Mercury had previously reported on the issue and released the names of the councillors, with the help of whistle-blowers, which could be prohibited if the Secrecy Bill in its present form becomes law.
While there are many examples of the negative impact of the Secrecy Bill, international organisations have also warned that it is not just about a clampdown on democracy, but also the erosion of SA’s hard-won democracy.
Human Rights Watch, an international organisation, last year condemned the SA government for pushing the bill through the National Assembly, saying that despite the amendments which had taken place over 18 months, the bill was still a “serious blow” to democratic accountability.
Freedom House, a non-profit body based in London, downgraded South Africa’s press freedom status from free to partly free in 2010. The bill was named as one of the reasons for the change. - The Mercury
** E-mail Wendy: wendy.jassondacosta@inl.co.za