The cabinet has approved the submission to parliament of a bill that will separate domestic and foreign intelligence services that now operate under the State Security Agency (SSA).
This is in line with the recommendations of the high-level review panel on the SSA chaired by Sydney Mufamadi, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s national security adviser. The panel submitted its report in 2018.
The draft General Intelligence Laws Amendment Bill approved by the cabinet also implements some of the recommendations of the Zondo commission of inquiry into state capture. It amends the National Strategic Intelligence Act.
According to the report, the amalgamation of the National Intelligence Agency (the domestic intelligence agency) and the SA Secret Service (concerned with foreign intelligence) was a mistake and contrary to policy. It recommended that the SSA be split into a domestic and foreign service.
The report says the SSA has become a “cash cow” for many inside and outside the agency and that there has been “a serious politicisation and factionalisation of the intelligence community over the past decade or more based on factions in the ruling party resulting in an almost complete disregard for the constitution, policy, legislation and other prescripts turning our civilian intelligence community into a private resource to serve the political and personal interests of particular individuals”.
The Zondo commission also heard evidence of extensive fraud, corruption and abuse of taxpayer money at the SSA.
In her budget vote speech on state security in the National Assembly earlier in May, minister in the presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said the proposals in the bill were benchmarked with legislations in other jurisdictions while upholding the context and principles of SA’s constitution.
The minister identified the following as possible security threats facing SA:
- Crime and corruption that are threatening to reach endemic levels;
- Load-shedding;
- Unemployment;
- Economic infrastructure sabotage; and
- Greylisting by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
According to the cabinet statement released after last week’s cabinet meeting the bill also seeks to remedy the defects in the functioning of signals intelligence capacity — the interception of signals. The Constitutional Court ruled in 2021 that the SSA’s untargeted foreign signal intelligence was unlawful as it had no legal basis.
According to the cabinet statement the bill tackles “the weaknesses identified through the FATF process, including measures to combat money laundering and terrorist financing by empowering the national security structures to investigate and conduct security assessment if a person or institution is of national security interest”.
Earlier in 2023 the FATF, a Paris-based international body that evaluates systems to combat money laundering and terrorism financing, greylisted SA as it found its systems deficient. Particularly highlighted by FATF were deficiencies in law enforcement and the successful prosecution of offenders.
The bill will also strengthen measures to regulate and co-ordinate the private security industry and put in place measures to regulate the conduct of former members of the service and others with access to intelligence information.
“The bill will further ensure that the services of the SSA are not abused to serve the interests or agenda of certain individuals,” the cabinet statement says. “The amendments will strengthen the oversight of the intelligence agencies by bodies such as the inspector-general of intelligence, the joint standing committee on intelligence and the auditor-general of SA.”
The Sunday Times reported that the committee has been frustrated by the long delay in processing the bill and threatened to use its powers to begin work on the legislation itself.
Also approved by the cabinet for submission to parliament was the draft Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) Amendment Bill, which proposes to boost and entrench Ipid’s institutional and operational independence.
The amendments deal with issues raised by the Constitutional Court, which declared as invalid certain provisions of the Ipid Act of 2011, which authorised the minister to suspend, take disciplinary steps and ultimately remove the executive director. The draft bill proposes a more transparent and open process for the appointment of the executive director and a detailed, thorough process for integrity testing of Ipid officials.
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