The Protection of Information Bill passed through parliament with 229 votes for it and 107 against such. Two abstained from voting. The Bill has not been received well by the public, but since they are not the ones voting, the ANC used its majority in parliament to push it through amidst tremendous public outcry against it.

The media, opposition parties and ordinary citizens have come out strong against it. Critics feel that it is just an excuse to get the media to back off from investigating and reporting on actions by the government. Extreme penalties await anyone who releases documents or information declared secret. Any person who dares to do so can face up to 25 years imprisonment.

It has been seen as ironic since at the same time as the Protection of Information Bill has been passed, the government has taken steps against people who have not given their information during the census of 2011. In addition, mobile phone users must go through the RICA process, property buyers through the FICA process, and all business owners must now declare and submit detailed information about their businesses.

It has a Gestapo ring to it all. First the citizens are counted, then they must submit all kinds of information, while at the same time the government gets to protect any information it deems secret. The Bill is considered exceptionally broad and easily extendible to the media and any person who dares to ask questions. Coming from a government that has called for absolute transparency in governing when they took over power, it can only mean one thing – the ANC government is not one that takes criticism lightly.

Ordinary citizens and the mouthpieces of the public, the media, can easily become criminals and get longer sentences for asking questions than criminals get for murder, hijacking and armed robbery. Somehow, the passing of the Protection of Information Bill has given the South African nation a taste of the control over the Internet that is to come.

Some critics believe that the Bill is a mere method to keep preying eyes from government actions, whilst others perceive it as a means to get away with large scale corruption, bribery and mismanagement without the need to be accounted for such actions.

With the Bill still having to be approved by the National Council of Provinces next year, the DA has vowed to keep on fighting for amendments to it. Should the process not deliver a new version of the Bill, the DA has undertaken to petition the President to decline signing it. They will then have to send it back for further discussion to parliament. The DA has also indicated that should the Protection of Information Bill become law, that they will take the matter to the Constitutional Court.

Cosatu has also indicated that they will challenge the Bill if it is signed into law without amendments. The Bill doesn’t allow for the publishing of information deemed secret, by the media in public interest. With that then there is no protection for the media and it can be taken as the extremely radical censorship over the media, including information shared on the Internet and even Social Media channels such as Face Book or YouTube.

It does seem sad that if numerous NGO’s, the media in general, and the public are against such a bill that will protect information from the state, it could still be passed.  Protests against the Information Protection Bill took place in all the major cities of South Africa and protestors wore black and called it “Black Tuesday”, in remembrance of the 1977 “Black Wednesday” when certain newspapers and a Christian publication were banned in addition to several organizations.

Not only the DA and Cosatu have vowed to fight the Bill, but numerous other organizations including the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance. Some have compared the passing of the Bill as a return to the Old Regime or Apartheid days.

The Mail & Guardian has recently come under fire for carrying a story about Mac Maharaj, who succeeded to prevent the story from being published. Newspapers, Internet blogs, commentary sites and Facebook Groups can easily find themselves on the wrong side of the law if they publish documents which are declared State Secret.

The problem with the ANC government approach is that there is no clear boundary of what is state secret and what not. If a person signs a confidentiality agreement, then surely there is an agreement in place not to disclose information. Should a person, however, receive information that isn’t stamped as State Secret or Classified, then how is the person to judge that the information is indeed a state secret and not to be shared with others? These and many other questions surround the controversial Protection of State Information Bill.

Although one should avoid jumping the gun to assume that the Bill will also mean severe information control and suppression thereof as well as censorship, the recent suppression of information about the involvement of Mac Maharaj in the arms deal scandal of 1999 is a taste of what is planned with it.

The fact that the ANC has pushed forward with the unchanged Bill shows that they are rather eager to get it signed and enforced to prevent further information disclosure. Recent attempts by the government to gain access to Blackberry encrypted messages amongst users are still fresh in the memories of citizens as are the actions against any person daring to speak out against the corruption in government.

The Protection of Information Bill furthermore allows for any of the government agencies to have information classified as secret or of value to the State upon application. The publishing or distribution of such information will then be a severe criminal offense. It remains a far cry from government transparency and an issue which may very well lead to further alienation of ANC supporters. Investors have been cautious as reports indicate that they fear that the balance has been tipped and with a government which is likely not to step off soon, such caution can be respected.

Although protests continue, critics argue that in a country where protests are almost a daily occurrence, such actions have little to no impact. For freedom of speech and protection against complete control over the media and individual freedom of communication, hope is placed in the Constitutional Court to declare the Protection of State Information Bill as unconstitutional.