An oral submission on the Protection of State Information Bill was stopped on Wednesday afternoon because it contained "political statements". Mark Weinberg, from the Alternative Information Development Centre, was interrupted when he mentioned "the rise of securocrats" and "the tendency towards greater conservative authoritarianism" in his presentation.
Raseriti Tau, the chairman of the ad hoc committee on the bill, told him: "Now, you are giving me problems now. I know that I am going to be accused of having denied you an opportunity to speak. We can't continue with this." He added: "There are serious political statements now that you are making now. You are making reference to the Polokwane conference and all those sorts of things. "Can we stop this presentation. We are not going to allow you to continue with this presentation."
Weinberg had said that the tendency towards greater conservative authoritarianism in South Africa had to be understood in terms in the context of the battle between various factions and groups fighting for influence in the ruling party and the state. "We also see the rise of securocrats," he said. "This so called... alliance of the wounded cobbled together pre-Polokwane is weakening and its fissures rupturing..." Tau then stopped Weinberg from continuing. "It would have been good if you were a lobby group and there is someone who was seeking funding for a protest," Tau said.
Source: Times Live
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