Sad day for South Africans.

[BlindSniper]

Today the secrecy bill has passed, making it punishable by 25 years in prison for having classified government information. Now the government has effectively secured a breeding ground for corruption. I just hope that the ANC has cut their own throats by using their majority to make the bill pass, since the majority of people oppose this bill.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15822105

[abhijit]

What does "classified government information" cover?

Is it defense secrets or information on tenders filled by contractors to repair roads / bridges etc? Or is all encompassing?

[honeybee]

Well, my guess is the definition is pretty flexible and the government has rights to modify and interpret it whichever way they want and that the government's interpretation would be final and binding.

Ah well, that's what I call swimming against the tide.

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[Jacob Roman]

Today the secrecy bill has passed, making it punishable by 25 years in prison for having classified government information. Now the government has effectively secured a breeding ground for corruption. I just hope that the ANC has cut their own throats by using their majority to make the bill pass, since the majority of people oppose this bill.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15822105

Damn good thing Wikileaks isn't South African :bigyello::thumb:

[BlindSniper]

Well, my guess is the definition is pretty flexible and the government has rights to modify and interpret it whichever way they want and that the government's interpretation would be final and binding.

Ah well, that's what I call swimming against the tide.

.
That is how I would define a government secret. In any case it's just our president trying to cover his ass in a controversial arms deal, but the main concern is that it is basically a blank cheque for anyone with a bad agenda.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Yeah, we've been doing that for a long time. Anything can be classified, and much of what is classified managed to get to that state simply to hide something embarassing. Still, the only people who can leak it and get away with it are top government officials.

[BlindSniper]

The thing is now anyone who now has evidence of corruption in the government are now classified as criminals themselves.
I hope wiki leaks gets back to full working order soon.

[honeybee]

It's hard to weed out corruption, unless you want to stage a revolution. Corruption of all sorts has become the norm in most of the governments, democratic or otherwise. And rather than trying to change all these people, it will one day become easier to simply change the system.

And then the world will enter the biggest chaos since the big bang.

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[BlindSniper]

I wouldn't mind the corruption so much if they at least did their jobs as well.

[honeybee]

Which, incidentally, is another form of corruption.

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