Preparations for public hearings on Protection of Information Bill

Meeting report

Preparations for public hearings on Protection of Information Bill
The Chairperson welcomed back the Members from recess and highlighted the issues that were discussed during the Committee’s previous meeting on 30 June 2010.

In addition, he advised that during the public hearings that would take place on the 21 and 22 July, Members should sit on the right hand side of the room whilst presenters would be on the left hand side. Each speaker would be allocated with 15 minutes for the presentation and 15 minutes for the interaction with the Committee. The Mail and Guardian had submitted a request for the presentation to be in a power point format, this was granted provided that all electronic equipment would be set up and ready for use before the presentation. Another request had been received from one of the presenters for an extension of the presentation time, what would be the Committees position on this?

Ms T Sunduza (ANC) replied that it would be unfair to the other presenters and would be a display of favouritism on the part of the Committee if it was granted.

The Chairperson agreed with Ms Sunduza and moved on to the next issue, which was the presentation of National Archives of South Africa, which had not been received by the Committee despite insistence by the organisation that it had sent it. How did the Committee wish to resolve this?

Mr T Landers (ANC) said that National Archives of South Africa had previously presented in Parliament on many occasions and should not be excluded now.

The Chairperson agreed and pointed out that the organisation housed many of the countries documents and had a direct interest in the Bill. Dr Laurie Nathan had informed the Committee that he would not be able to present at the public hearings, as he would be in Darfur. National Archives of South Africa would be allowed to present and take the slot that had been allocated to Dr Laurie Nathan.

The meeting was adjourned.