Opposition parties walk out of Secrecy Bill discussion

By Khanyisa Tabata
15 February 2011

Representatives from several opposition parties have walked out of a discussion on the so-called Secrecy Bill.

The MPs are questioning whether the ANC can do as it pleases, irrespective of rules and procedures.

The African Christian Democratic Party’s Steve Swarts says the National Assembly must appoint a new committee to finalise the Bill.

IFP’s Mario Ambrosini said after the committee’s chairman, Cecil Burgess, insisted the meeting should go ahead he would not be part procedural travesty

Dene Smuts and David Maynier of the Democratic Alliance and Steve Swart of the ACDP followed, leaving only COPE’s Smuts Ngonyama to represent opposition parties.

After they had left, a handful of freedom of information activists from the Right2Know campaign donned masks with Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele’s face.