The plan by the African Transformation Movement (ATM) to table a bill aimed at checking the foreign funding of NGOs critical of government’s policy choices is another wrong-headed attempt to stifle the fundamental right to free speech.
This is the view of the Free Speech Union SA (FSU-SA) after ATM leader Vuyolwethu Zungula announced last month his party was a step closer to introducing the private members’ bill in parliament.
He told the SABC the bill, which is before parliament’s legal department, is aimed at exposing “foreign agents hiding behind the banner of NGOs and civil society groups while pushing their own agendas”. He expects to table the bill in parliament in July.
FSU-SA said on Thursday repeated attempts had been made to restrict the activities and views of NGOs by, among other things, interfering with their funding.
“It appears the ATM is concerned about NGOs using funding to oppose legislation and policies. The purpose of many NGOs is to oppose legislation and policies,” it said.
The organisation said it could be considered a moral duty for NGOs to do so, given the ruinous effects of policies and laws which have turned South Africa into a near-economic basket case.
FSU-SA said Zungula was reported as saying the legislation will seek to expose “foreign agents” using NGOs and civil society groups as fronts to push their political agendas, which he believes are often aimed at destabilising South Africa.
“If an NGO and/or its foreign funders breaches a law in South Africa there is more than enough legislation to tackle such breaches.”
It said the Non-Profit Organisations Act obliged an NPO to register with the department of social development to be recognised under the law. This was to maintain adequate standards of governance, transparency and accountability.
“There are myriad laws, including company and tax laws, that govern the operation of non-profit companies to ensure greater transparency from NGOs about their funding sources” FSU-SA director Sara Gon said.
The ATM should rather pay attention to the real risks which threatened the genuine interests of South Africans.
“Prominent among these is the perennial impulse to curb free speech when this foundational freedom of our constitutional democracy has proved so effective in exposing the policy and legislative failures that are chiefly responsible for weakening the South African state and impoverishing its people.”
TimesLIVE
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