Academic favoured for top spook post

PARLIAMENT’s oversight committee on intelligence has recommended a Unisa academic and a former career policeman as the new watchdog of the intelligence community.

Setlhomamaru Isaac Dintwe, the head of Unisa’s police practice department, was yesterday announced by the joint-standing-committee on intelligence as their unanimous candidate to be appointed as new Inspectorof Intelligence (IGI).

The IGI is responsible for ensuring the country’s intelligence services, including spies, conduct their affairs within the confines of the law.

The position has been vacant for almost 18 months since advocate Faith Radebe left the job after her contract expired in March last year.

Parliament struggled to fill the position as opposition parties refused to endorse the ANC’s previously preferred candidate and its former MP Cecil Burgess and the governing party failed to secure the two-thirds majority required for its candidate to be approved.

But given the unanimity around Dintwe, the national assembly is expected to fully endorse him, allowing President Jacob Zuma to sign off on his appointment.

Prior to being an academic, Dintwe was a senior member of the independent police investigations directorate (Ipid) in Mpumalanga.

Right2Know lobby group spokesman Murray Hunter expressed concern over a photo on Dintwe’s Facebook page of Dintwe with Minister of Communications Faith Muthambi and ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe, questioning his independence.