America, Britain and all the countries of the European Union have adopted and implemented ideas from (mainly) the United States, in that many governments the world over are increasingly aware of security threats developing in the form of radical political movements and their terrorist activities which are threatening key assets, critical to their security and effective functioning.

The Americans call it "Critical Infrastructure Protection" (CIP), whilst the European Union calls it the European Programme for Critical Infrastructure Protection (EPCIP).

Such critical installations should include, but are not limited to:

A country's law making bodies (the legislature and courts), military installations, prisons, financial institutions, oil production, electricity generation, transportation, telecommunications, water, health, official residences of heads of state (e.g. the White House, Buckingham Palace) etc.

As I said earlier, "critical infrastructure" is the operative term here and it seems to be internationally recognised, nowadays. The DA is trying to create the impression that they invented the idea, but they actually stole the name from other countries, ignoring the fact that South Africa has had it since 1980, in the form of the National Key Points Act. It is most definitely not a new concept; it just has a different name.

South Africa was way ahead of its time when the National Key Points Act was enacted, but certain aspects of the act need tweaking or revision. The act primarily made provision for the recognition of the need for the protection of various key points within South Africa. Arguing the need for such policy is not an endorsement of the apartheid era system, but merely taking lessons learnt and applying them to modern day South Africa. By the same token, many horrible technologies of World War II were key in the technological advancements we enjoy today.

In the South Africa of today, whilst we don't yet see terrorist threats, as experienced in countries like the USA, we cannot afford to ignore the fact that new movements are growing in this country, with some of them being radical military styled "political" movements that call for a revolution. Africa is no stranger to bloody wars and so-called revolutions. It is common knowledge that some countries on this continent have not seen peace in decades, all in the name of "revolution". The CAR is a case in point. That country was taken in a matter of hours!

Key points in South Africa do not all need to be made public, as this poses a significant threat to the asset and its contents, in the form of documentation, information or people. If a something is known to be a key point it becomes a heightened security risk, making it vulnerable to attack/espionage/clandestine operations.

Various assets warrant key point classification, as stated in the European EPCIP and the US CIP, for example installations such as the South African Naval Armaments Depot (where explosives are manufactured), Joint Operations HQ, Special forces training areas, the official Presidential residences and so on, BUT the residences of Cabinet Ministers, Premiers MECs and the likes, should remain assets that are afforded a high level of security. They are certainly not national key points and neither is Nkandla!

It is vitally important to have an act like this is in any country, especially a democratic one. The argument isn't about why the act should be changed, but rather why it is needed.

There have been abuses in the application of the NKP Act, and I do believe that a repeal of certain aspects and some amendments are necessary. The DA wanting to push their bill through will lead to that party getting a little more arrogant and a little more elitist.

We have since seen the list of key points published, and in my opinion many of those warrant critical infrastructure status, some like that of Nkandla are perhaps a little overboard, as one would expect the president to have high security in the first place.

There is no other law protecting critical infrastructure, so scrapping the Key Points act in place of reviewing and updating may be shooting ourselves in the foot.

Tim Flack is the Western Cape Organiser for the South African National Defence Union (SANDU)

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