TRANSPARENCY was one of the principles the drafters of our 1996 constitution kept high in their minds throughout the difficult process of its negotiation.
With the secretive apartheid government and its state security council fresh in their minds – and with the Nats anxious to ensure that no one could do to them what they had done to others for the previous 48 years – the drafters provided only for the most necessary confidentiality.
The first point of the first chapter of the constitution lists its founding values and ends “ ... a multi-party system of democratic government to ensure accountability, responsiveness and openness”. After nearly two decades in power, however, the ANC and its current president, Jacob Zuma, are leading us in the opposite direction.
The latest evidence of that comes in this week’s row about the fabled Presidential Handbook, which was said in 2006 to be close to completion, but seems still not to exist.
Its absence means the president’s and deputy president’s use of public resources is managed by a secret cabinet policy document and that we, the tax-paying public, are not entitled to know the parameters of their spending privileges.
The public protector, Lawrence Mushwana at the time, ordered the government in 2006 to urgently complete “the draft Presidential Handbook, which is currently in the process of being finalised”.
It seems it is still in the process of being finalised.
The insight Mushwana gave on its proposed provisions is the nearest thing we have to a public yardstick against which to measure the little information we are given about the use that Zuma and Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe make of the fleet of South African Air Force jets kept for them.
It is possible that they owe us no explanation – at least not legally.
The constitution stipulates that “members of the cabinet and deputy ministers must act in accordance with a code of ethics prescribed by national legislation”.
A lay reading might assume that the president and his deputy are covered since they are members of the cabinet. But the only handbook that exists – the 2007 Ministerial Handbook that Zuma has been promising to update since the cabinet cars debacle – specifically excludes the president and his deputy.
Read with Mushwana’s 2006 ruling, it also shows that converse rules apply for the top men and for the ministers and their deputies.
The ministerial handbook provides that ministers should use commercial airlines wherever possible and that the air force should step in only when there is no commercial alternative, when time pressures require it or “for reasons of health”.
According to Mushwana’s ruling, however, the president and deputy president are obliged to use the air force fleet at all times – even for foreign holidays with their friends and families.
“Their positions make them especially vulnerable and any actual or potential threat to their security constitutes a direct threat to the national security and safety of the whole country. The state is therefore obliged to take stringent measures to provide for their security and protection, in the interest of the nation and the individuals concerned. No distinction is made between official and private trips as far as motor vehicle and air transportation is concerned,” he ruled.
And as the former Minister of Defence, Lindiwe Sisulu made clear in a series of clashes with DA MP David Maynier, the Zuma administration does not plan to continue Thabo Mbeki’s tradition of reporting once a year on the use made of the VIP fleet. That too is secret.
In a separate development on Tuesday, police briefing a parliamentary portfolio committee revealed that the number of so-called national key points had soared from 175 in 2011 to 197 this year.
In the looking glass world that only Lewis Carroll’s Alice would understand, these places are so secret that we may not even know what they are. According to ministers defending Zuma’s Nkandla profligacy, we are not entitled to know anything of what goes on inside them either.
The National Key Points Act of 1980 is one of those ugly pieces of apartheid legislation that our democratic government has not found time to repeal. Looking at the use they are making of it, it seems unlikely they will get around to it any time soon.
The act says the Minister of Defence may declare any place a key point “if it appears ... at any time that any place or area is so important that its loss, damage, disruption or immobilisation may prejudice the Republic, or whenever he considers it necessary or expedient for the safety of the Republic or in the public interest”.
It provides for a sentence of up to three years in prison for anyone who “furnishes in any manner whatsoever any information relating to the security measures, applicable at or in respect of any National Key Point or in respect of any incident that occurred there”.
Earlier this month, we discovered that the January deployment of troops to the Central African Republic was done according to a bilateral accord that the government still refuses to release.
The secrecy bill, otherwise known as the Protection of State Information Bill, is close to the end of its road through parliament and will further tighten the government’s hold on any information it chooses, subject to some limitation, to declare secret.
There is a trend developing across government to protect as much as possible about Zuma and, if possible, his ministers from public scrutiny.
The constitutional pledge of openness is being violated every day. Instead, there is a dangerous trend towards concealment that we must fight as hard as possible.
Brendan Boyle is editor of the Daily Dispatch
Constitutional pledge of openness being violated
With the secretive apartheid government and its state security council fresh in their minds – and with the Nats anxious to ensure that no one could do to them what they had done to others for the previous 48 years – the drafters provided only for the most necessary confidentiality.
The first point of the first chapter of the constitution lists its founding values and ends “ ... a multi-party system of democratic government to ensure accountability, responsiveness and openness”. After nearly two decades in power, however, the ANC and its current president, Jacob Zuma, are leading us in the opposite direction.
The latest evidence of that comes in this week’s row about the fabled Presidential Handbook, which was said in 2006 to be close to completion, but seems still not to exist.
Its absence means the president’s and deputy president’s use of public resources is managed by a secret cabinet policy document and that we, the tax-paying public, are not entitled to know the parameters of their spending privileges.
The public protector, Lawrence Mushwana at the time, ordered the government in 2006 to urgently complete “the draft Presidential Handbook, which is currently in the process of being finalised”.
It seems it is still in the process of being finalised.
The insight Mushwana gave on its proposed provisions is the nearest thing we have to a public yardstick against which to measure the little information we are given about the use that Zuma and Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe make of the fleet of South African Air Force jets kept for them.
It is possible that they owe us no explanation – at least not legally.
The constitution stipulates that “members of the cabinet and deputy ministers must act in accordance with a code of ethics prescribed by national legislation”.
A lay reading might assume that the president and his deputy are covered since they are members of the cabinet. But the only handbook that exists – the 2007 Ministerial Handbook that Zuma has been promising to update since the cabinet cars debacle – specifically excludes the president and his deputy.
Read with Mushwana’s 2006 ruling, it also shows that converse rules apply for the top men and for the ministers and their deputies.
The ministerial handbook provides that ministers should use commercial airlines wherever possible and that the air force should step in only when there is no commercial alternative, when time pressures require it or “for reasons of health”.
According to Mushwana’s ruling, however, the president and deputy president are obliged to use the air force fleet at all times – even for foreign holidays with their friends and families.
“Their positions make them especially vulnerable and any actual or potential threat to their security constitutes a direct threat to the national security and safety of the whole country. The state is therefore obliged to take stringent measures to provide for their security and protection, in the interest of the nation and the individuals concerned. No distinction is made between official and private trips as far as motor vehicle and air transportation is concerned,” he ruled.
And as the former Minister of Defence, Lindiwe Sisulu made clear in a series of clashes with DA MP David Maynier, the Zuma administration does not plan to continue Thabo Mbeki’s tradition of reporting once a year on the use made of the VIP fleet. That too is secret.
In a separate development on Tuesday, police briefing a parliamentary portfolio committee revealed that the number of so-called national key points had soared from 175 in 2011 to 197 this year.
In the looking glass world that only Lewis Carroll’s Alice would understand, these places are so secret that we may not even know what they are. According to ministers defending Zuma’s Nkandla profligacy, we are not entitled to know anything of what goes on inside them either.
The National Key Points Act of 1980 is one of those ugly pieces of apartheid legislation that our democratic government has not found time to repeal. Looking at the use they are making of it, it seems unlikely they will get around to it any time soon.
The act says the Minister of Defence may declare any place a key point “if it appears ... at any time that any place or area is so important that its loss, damage, disruption or immobilisation may prejudice the Republic, or whenever he considers it necessary or expedient for the safety of the Republic or in the public interest”.
It provides for a sentence of up to three years in prison for anyone who “furnishes in any manner whatsoever any information relating to the security measures, applicable at or in respect of any National Key Point or in respect of any incident that occurred there”.
Earlier this month, we discovered that the January deployment of troops to the Central African Republic was done according to a bilateral accord that the government still refuses to release.
The secrecy bill, otherwise known as the Protection of State Information Bill, is close to the end of its road through parliament and will further tighten the government’s hold on any information it chooses, subject to some limitation, to declare secret.
There is a trend developing across government to protect as much as possible about Zuma and, if possible, his ministers from public scrutiny.
The constitutional pledge of openness is being violated every day. Instead, there is a dangerous trend towards concealment that we must fight as hard as possible.
Brendan Boyle is editor of the Daily Dispatch
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