The High Court in Johannesburg will hear an application on Monday for a list of South Africa’s National Key Points to be made public. The Right2Know Campaign (R2K) and the SA History Archive (SAHA) want the list to be made public in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA).
In 2012 a request was made to the SA Police Service for the list of key points, but it was refused, R2K spokesman Murray Hunter said.
“An internal appeal to the Minister of Police upheld that refusal; in addition to broad security concerns, the Minister cited the need to consider the privacy of private companies who are protected by the Act.”
Civic organisations had complained that the secrecy surrounding National Key Points had been “used to undermine” the right to know and to protest in public spaces.
“We believe this basic transparency is an important step in countering the uncontrolled secrecy and potential abuse of South Africa’s ‘national security’ policies,” Hunter said. SAPA