Technical glitch in infobill voting: ANC
African National Congress chief whip Mathole Motshekga was wrongfully recorded as voting against the Protection of State Information Bill, the party said on Thursday.
African National Congress chief whip Mathole Motshekga was wrongfully recorded as voting against the Protection of State Information Bill, the party said on Thursday.
"Due to the technical problem with Parliament's voting machines, the system erroneously recorded [him]... as having voted in the negative," the ANC said in a statement. "Parliament has since swiftly rectified the error and the minutes of today's [Thursday] sitting will reflect that he has indeed voted in the affirmative." Parliament passed the Protection of State Information Bill on Thursday after three years of debate and redrafting.
It adopted the bill by 189 votes against 74, with one abstention. All opposition parties continued to object to the bill, with some raising limited concerns and others rejecting it outright as a threat to democracy, before the ANC majority won the day. This version of the bill differs considerably from that which the ANC drove through the legislature amid an outcry in 2011, before a raft of changes were introduced by the National Council of Provinces last year.
- Sapa