MARIANNE MERTEN: Madlanga commission can’t ignore the collapse of intelligence and policing oversight

A recent parliamentary question asking whether the inspector-general of intelligence’s report into “procurement irregularities” implicating SA Police Service (SAPS) officials was sent to the joint standing committee on intelligence (JSCI) — only to disappear into obscurity and silence.

This matters because it reflects the accountability sabotage that allows SAPS crime intelligence and the State Security Agency (SSA) to avoid accountability — and consequences — for dodgy dealings and malfeasance. It has made oversight structures complicit.

The “procurement irregularities” in this parliamentary question refer to crime intelligence’s purchase of properties, including hotels, which has been in the public domain since late 2024, according to City Press and News24 investigative reporting. It’s also known due to investigative journalists’ efforts that inspector-general for intelligence Imtiaz Fazel looked into the matter and delivered a report, recommending steps against SAPS chief Fannie Masemola and crime intelligence boss Dumisani Khumalo, to acting police minister Firoz Cachalia.

Around this time the SSA suddenly cancelled Fazel’s security clearance, effectively making him a lame duck. Unlike his predecessor, Setlhomamaru Dintwe, who went to court when the SSA cancelled his security clearance in 2018, Fazel remained schtum.

Meanwhile, a complaint about Fazel’s conduct was made to the JSCI, which decided to investigate, unlike with many earlier claims of intelligence malfeasance. The JSCI probe led President Cyril Ramaphosa to suspend Fazel with immediate effect on October 15, though the law says suspension is a “may” not a must.

Because the JSCI is now probing an unspecified complaint from an unspecified person/entity against Fazel, News24 reported that Cachalia is not doing anything about the inspector-general of intelligence’s report. Oversight and accountability are in effect stalled.

The JSCI sits in secret though by law and rules it could decide to open proceedings. Ministers refer parliamentary replies to this committee to tick the boxes of accountability, knowing full well that all will be kept secret. The MPs, who seem to fancy themselves as 007s in the inner sanctum of spy-dom, play along.

But it’s accountability sabotage that allows crime intelligence and the SSA to thumb their noses at constitutionally required accountability and transparency, and the rebuilding of functional, ethical police and intelligence services.

A parliamentary question asking why one-time SSA director-general Thembi Majola left on a month’s notice in November 2023 and was dispatched to JSCI secrecy. That she featured in an inspector-general of intelligence investigation emerged only when the high court in Pretoria set aside a unilateral pension deduction from an intelligence official over invalid internal proceedings, like denying access to the December 2023 inspector-general of intelligence report because it dealt with Majola.

This judgment balances the need for confidentiality of SSA operational requirements with transparency for administrative justice and accountability. So, it can be done.

That one-time defence secretary Sonto Kudjoe’s security vetting was problematic emerged in the JSCI annual report to March 31 2022, which meeting bullet points show was discussed on August 24 2021. But nothing was detailed anywhere and the report missed its statutory deadline by two years, eventually being published just ahead of the May 2024 elections. By then Kudjoe was long gone having resigned in January 2023.

The JSCI has dismissed the Zondo commission’s findings that the committee was “dysfunctional”, “inefficient” and “failed to ensure that adequate and timeous steps were taken to address apparently criminal conduct”. Meanwhile, the recent parliamentary reply on “procurement irregularities” that illustrates accountability sabotage may crop up before the Madlanga commission into political interference and corruption in the criminal justice system.

The commission can’t ignore the flailing accountability architecture. Without transparent oversight of intelligence and policing the criminal justice system simply can’t work.

• Merten is a veteran political journalist specialising in parliament and governance. Her MSc thesis examined how centralising intelligence control in the presidency reduced oversight and accountability, undermining SA’s constitutional democracy.