DA welcomes National Key Points judgment
03 December 2014
The DA welcomes Judge Roland Sutherland's ruling that it is indeed unlawful and unconstitutional to not reveal the approximately 250 National Key Points.
This comes after Judge Sutherland of the Johannesburg High Court ruled that the Minister of Police, Nathi Nhleko, had 30 days to release the names of the 250-odd National Key Points under the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA).
This judgment makes it clear that the Minister and the ANC cannot continue to hide behind this draconian Apartheid legislation to classify information in the public interest. If the locations are revealed, it will not allow further shenanigans with the classification of information in the public interest.
The Public Protector had found that the then Police Minister, Nathi Mthethwa, did not properly apply his mind when declaring Nkandla a National Key Point. This was clearly part of a coordinated strategy to classify as much information about the Nkandla expenditure as possible.
According to the latest Police Annual Report there are 248 National Key Points and Strategic Installations:
90 VIP residences;
42 installations/government buildings;
15 presidential residential premises; and
3 offices.
Section 10 of the Act creates a criminal offence by prohibiting anyone from providing "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". That means jail for journalists and a stone wall in Parliament for anyone asking tough questions.
It is a self-serving Act that should be on an Apartheid-era scrap heap, but the President has 246 million good reasons to keep the National Key Point Act in place, despite the DA's proposed legislation to have it scrapped.
The DA will write to the Police Minister asking that he make public the list of these key points within the 30-day deadline.
Statement issued by Dianne Kohler Barnard MP, DA Shadow Minister of Police, December 3 2014
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