Chairperson, I gladly follow a member of this House who claims to have fought for liberation in this country. Ha haaa! [Laughter.]
Chairperson, hon Deputy President, Ministers, Deputy Ministers and hon members, the Protection of State Information Bill, amongst other things, seeks to repeal the old apartheid legislation, the Protection of Information Act, Act 84 of 1982. Whoever is opposed to this piece of legislation, wants us to live in the apartheid era, and that will never happen. [Interjections.] [Applause.]
This Bill provides for a system of classification and declassification of state information, as the Minister has said. It further seeks to protect certain valuable state information against alteration, destruction, loss, or unlawful disclosure. Furthermore, it seeks to regulate the manner in which state information may be protected. It criminalises espionage and information peddling. Cope has a problem with that; I wonder why? I wonder why does the speaker of Cope, who was speaking here, have a problem with this piece of legislation, criminalising espionage and information peddling? I wonder who they are working for. [Applause.]
Opponents of this Bill argue against the passing of the Bill on the basis that it does not - in their view - provide for a public interest defence clause. I find it very difficult when laws of the country are processed by the two Houses of Parliament and some South Africans are saying that had it not gone to the NCOP, it would not have been the product it is now. I find that very, very strange. Those people are calling themselves South Africans. We, South Africans, have two Houses of Parliament. Bills come from this House and go to the other House. That you should know.
Furthermore, amendments were made to the Bill for exemptions on disclosure and processing of classified information to address the concerns raised around the public interest defence clause. In fact, on Monday, just on Monday - it was not last week, it was this week on Monday - when we passed the Bill as amended, not a single party raised an objection to the Bill - not a single party! I'm wondering now about this when the leader of the DA is coming to speak here saying that the Bill is still flawed. Yet, her operatives, who were in the committee, never raised an objection to the Bill. [Interjections.] You know how the situation was, when we were in the committee they always sat opposite us.