Deliberations on proposed amendments to the secrecy bill postponed

The NCOP Ad Hoc Committee considering the Protection of State Information Bill (known as the secrecy bill) was scheduled to meet daily from 29 May to 1 June 2012 to discuss amendments to the bill proposed by the committee members.

However, the committee did not meet as scheduled today and meetings scheduled for the remainder of the week have also been cancelled.

No reason for the postponement has been provided and no further dates for the committee to meet have been scheduled at this time.

The committee last met on 10 May 2012 when final amendments to the bill proposed by members were identified. Thereafter the Department of State Security and the State Law Advisors were instructed to provide comments to the committee on the suggested amendments to be considered at further meetings of the committee.

It is unclear at this stage whether the necessary comments have been provided by the Department of State Security and the State Law Advisors.

The committee is scheduled to complete its work on the bill by 30 June 2012.