What the South African Secrecy Bill Means for the Open Government Partnership

Last week, the South African parliament passed legislation overhauling the country’s apartheid-era secrecy law. The new secrecy bill, formally called the Protection of State Information Bill (POSIB), defines how the government can classify and withhold sensitive information from the public, including exempting the disclosure of such information from freedom of information requests. It was met with protests and criticism from civil society and other non-governmental quarters. Here at Global Integrity, we have been similarly concerned with the government’s insistence at pushing through the legislation in the face of concerted and specific criticism from respected South African stakeholders. But our immediate reaction upon hearing the news was: what does this mean for the Open Government Partnership?

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