No plans to ban Pagad and Qibla

The South African justice department said there were no immediate plans to ban two Cape Town groups, People against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) and Qibla, classified as terror organisations by the United States, news reports said on Wednesday.

Kaizer Kganyago, a justice department spokesman, was quoted as saying that the department was awaiting finalisation of anti-terrorism legislation. "We are not targeting any organisation per se," he said. "It would therefore be premature to say that particular organisations would be banned at this stage." Kganyago emphasised that the proposed anti-terror legislation predated the 11 September terror strikes in the US.

The date for public comment on the proposed legislation to the South African Law Commission has been extended to December, so new terror laws would not be on the statute books this year.

On Tuesday, Aziz Pahad, the deputy foreign affairs minister, said legal advisers in the department of justice were studying all relevant resolutions on terrorism, including those of the UN Security Council. "We must decide together how we will handle organisations which have been identified (by the US) as terrorist organisations. We must find out whether they are using our banks. Whether they have to be banned will depend on the legal advice. A political decision will have to be taken on the advice of the legal experts," Pahad was quoted as saying.