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ANC sabotaging parliamentary process: Leon

August 11, 2006, 15:00

Tony Leon, the Democratic Alliance leader, accused the ANC today of deliberate sabotage of the parliamentary process, resulting in President Thabo Mbeki's Africa policy being undermined. Writing in his weekly newsletter on the DA website, Leon said Thandi Tobias, the National Assembly defence committee chairperson had orchestrated the passage of the Prohibition of Mercenary Activities and Prohibition and Regulation of Certain Activities in Areas of Armed Conflict Bill through her committee.

While nobody wanted mercenary activity to be tolerated, this legislation was so obviously flawed that it even drew criticism from Mosiuoa Lekota, the Defence minister, himself when tabled last year. Lekota went so far as to urge the committee to help the defence department produce a law in keeping with the Constitution.

"While an amended and somewhat improved version of the bill was put before the committee during the course of last week, the process which was to follow was nothing more than a carefully orchestrated sham led by committee chair Thandi Tobias," Leon said.

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She had allowed members to make extensive inputs on the bill, including Roy Jankielsohn, a DA MP, who suggested a series of important amendments that would have tightened a number of vague definitions and made the legislation comply with the Constitution and accepted international law.

"At every turn Tobias gave the impression that a number of these amendments were agreed to and that they would be reflected in the revised version of the bill." However, after a week of discussion and input, many of the proposed amendments and suggestions, including those from Jankielsohn and outside experts, were simply ignored - bar some selective tinkering with the bill. "The end result of the ANC's deliberate sabotage of the parliamentary process is that we are now left with a piece of legislation which is not only possibly unconstitutional, but could also lead to a number of perverse consequences," Leon said.

When tabling the bill, Lekota admitted it was motivated by government's desire to stop South Africans working in places such as Iraq. However, in his desire to achieve this outcome, it appeared Lekota and his ANC colleagues had thrown the baby out with the bathwater. The bill would essentially criminalise South Africans' ability to earn a living, negatively impact on peacekeeping efforts in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan, and therefore ultimately undermine President Thabo Mbeki's Africa policy.

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Furthermore, by in effect making criminals of law-abiding citizens, government would force the return of thousands of highly-trained military personnel - people who would have every reason to feel disenchanted with the treatment afforded them by their government. This could pose a very real security threat to the nation.

"Surely, such a perverse and unintended consequence should have been foreseen by government?" The bill also placed too much authority and discretionary power in the hands of the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC) and Sydney Mufamadi, its chairperson and the current provincial and local government minister.

It required individuals wanting to serve in foreign armed forces, or private security companies to seek authorisation from the NCACC. Crucially, the NCACC could bar a citizen from joining an armed force, if such a force was currently involved in a theatre of conflict, which according to the bill, "would contribute to regional instability or negatively influence the balance of power in such a region or territory". "Such phrasing leaves the bill wide open to political interpretation and could be applied to virtually any conflict in the world," Leon said. - Sapa