Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Penuell Maduna has published a notice exempting the South African Secret Service (SASS) from the provisions of section 14 of the Promotion of Access to Information Act.

"This means the SASS, like the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), is not required to publish a manual of the records generated by it," the South African History Archive said in a statement yesterday. The notice referred to "security reasons" as the basis for the exemption.

The statement added that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) had met for a final time recently, and decided (in terms of its own enabling legislation) that records of in camera commission hearings should be made available to the public.

With acknowledgements to Sapa and the Cape Times.