National Key Points Act scrapped

The Protection of Critical Infrastructure Bill passed its last parliamentary hurdle yesterday when it was adopted by the National Council of Provinces.

The bill will replace the apartheid-era National Key Points Act.

It gives the police minister the discretion to declare certain installations critical infrastructure and prescribes how these are protected in the interest of national security.

The bill has been on the watch list of media activists, who have called for the inclusion of a public interest defence to shield whistle blowers and media who publish classified information to expose wrongdoing from prosecution.

They argue that like the old Act, which was invoked to cover up the upgrades at former president Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla home, its successor could be used to restrict critical media reporting.

Media lawyer Dario Milo has submitted that the draft law risked the anomaly of criminalising the kind of disclosures that are allowed under the Protected Disclosures Act and the Promotion of Access to Information Act.

The bill will now to go to Presidency Cyril Ramaphosa for signing into law. – ANA