South Africans this afternoon were frantically tweeting and Facebooking after Members of Parliament voted the controversial Protection of State Information Bill into law.
Tweets poured through every few seconds this afternoon as South Africa waited for Parliament to vote on the Bill.
After the votes were announced, many bemoaned the death of democracy. The Bill was passed in the National Assembly with an overwhelming majority voting in its favour.
Topics such as #BlackTuesday, #POIB, #SecrecyBill and #Protection of Information Bill were trending in South Africa all day.
Civil society had called on government to can the proposed law and several protests against it were held today. Mass mobilisation on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook urged South Africans to wear black in a last-ditch attempt to stop it being passed.
Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille tweeted that the Bill was passed with 259 votes in its favour and 32 abstentions. Only 41 members of Parliament voted against the law.
National Press Club chairman Yusuf Abramjee, who had been vocal on social media platforms, urging South Africans to wear black, did not immediately post a comment after the vote.
Black Tuesday
Abramjee previously said: “The proposed law is going to affect all South Africans and we all need to stand up now. This Bill does not only affect the media - civil society at large needs to raise its voice now.”
Several publications marked the day with black boxes on their front pages and electronic media was also urged to make a stand. Many journalists changed their profile pictures to black boxes on sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
Some tweeters commented that press freedom had been destroyed while others said they were no longer proud to be South African. Others were incredulous. Many wondered how many supporters the ANC lost today, and questioned why the people who had fought for freedom had just thrown it away.
An advertisement, attributed to Nandos, was doing the rounds shortly after the vote was announced. The text on the bulk image was censored.
The vote by the National Assembly was originally scheduled for Wednesday, 23 November, but was changed to 2pm today. Some speculated that it was moved to avoid the negative connotation of 'Black Wednesday' which refers to 19 October 1977, when The World and Sunday World newspapers and 19 black consciousness movements were banned by the apartheid government.
Some of this afternoon's tweets read:
ArtPereira: “#RIP RSA 1994-2011. The very people that wanted to save you, killed you. The others were too busy talking about it. Like me. #BlackTuesday”
Squidsquirt: “Invest in shredders, wipe hard drives. And good luck. #BlackTuesday”
TyronLSA: “Hey, I have an idea, let's take the best country in the world and F$EUR£ it up" - The ANC! Fools! #blacktuesday #poib”
MelAttree: “Disappointed. #blacktuesday - The only upside is that I don't think they'll be able to police it effectively...social media journalism FTW?”
Khayadlanga: “The duty of the press is not to protect the rulers, rather to save them from themselves. #BlackTuesday”
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