From the office of the Archbishop of Cape Town

The Most Revd Dr Thabo Makgoba, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, has written the following open letter to President Jacob Zuma, calling for him to return the Protection of State Information Bill to Cabinet, for inclusion of an adequate public interest provision.

Dear Mr President,

I write to you as one who grew up under a system that oppressed and censored the media – a system that invoked fear in anyone who dared to read, or embrace, different views to those of the government of the day. The
passage of the Protection of State Information Bill has stirred up in me vivid memories of my time as a student in the 1980s at Wits, and the traumatising experience of police ransacking our residence as they looked for
classified material. The undercurrent of fear running through our lives that this created is so totally in contradiction to the open atmosphere of constructively critical readings of our life and times which we so much
need in South Africa today.

| Read the full letter here.