LETTER: UDF should target NGOs bill

Last weekend’s commemorations of the United Democratic Front (UDF) featured repeated calls for civic action to extricate SA from its malaise.

It is a stark irony that as veterans of the turbulent 1980s were making this call, proposed legislation — the General Intelligence Laws Amendment Bill — would require the security services to vet those seeking to “establish and operate” non-governmental organisations and religious bodies.

This deeply concerning and (dare one say) cynical move would deal a major blow to the capacity for civic activism in SA. It would hand the incumbent government and any successor the potential to meddle in, and probably veto, the operations of civil society groups.

While a comparison between contemporary SA and the pre-1994 period is typically ill-advised, in this instance it is apt. During the 1980s considerable legal pressure was brought to bear on activists and organisations deemed threatening to the government of the day — quite aside from grisly “extralegal” measures. The UDF and its affiliates were well acquainted with this.

It would seem to be incumbent on those invoking the UDF’s legacy and calling for its spirit to be resuscitated now to take a visible, public stand against this bill.

Terence Corrigan
Institute of Race Relations

JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.