‘ANC reneges on bill’

OPPOSITION parties yesterday accused the ANC of retracting concessions made in recent weeks on the espionage section of the Protection of State Information Bill.

The ANC has reinserted a provision for a minimum jail sentence of 15 years for espionage, a crime which would carry a maximum sentence of 25 years.

It denied claims it was also reneging on an agreement that, in order to convict somebody of spying the state should prove the accused intended to benefit a foreign country.

The DA said the ANC had agreed in a closed-door meeting to remove the phrase “ought reasonably to have known” in relation to this offence, as with all others created by the draft law.

The wording has been widely criticised as creating such a low standard of liability that those charged under the new legislation could be jailed for mere negligence.

“They are certainly backtracking on espionage,” DA MP Alf Lees said.

The chairman of the National Council of Provinces committee processing the bill, Raseriti Tau, disputed this.

“There was an agreement that regarding espionage it will remain like that and we will remove the reverse onus from all other offences.”

He said it was justified in the case of espionage to lower the burden of proof, given the gravity of the crime.