Daily Dispatch
No country for apartheid tactics
YESTERDAY another report emerged of information being tampered with or stolen at parliament. With it fears were expressed about the safety of those targeted.
Parliament’s language services section was reportedly entered and an office filing cabinet was broken into and papers were moved around on desks. The “break-in” occurred on the same weekend as the burglary at the SABC’s parliament office in the Marks building, which also houses the opposition parties’ offices.
On Friday night the computers of four SABC journalists were taken – apparently without any sign of a break-in or use of force to disconnect the equipment. All entrances of all buildings, as well as all parliamentary gates are supposed to be guarded by the police.
Worryingly, Sthembiso Tembe, Nehawu’s representative at parliament, said the motive in the latest incident was not clear. “It looks as though they were looking for something,” he told City Press.
It is bad enough that two such incidents can occur at parliament and on the same weekend. But what is worse is that these appear to be part of a pattern of information theft or tampering that goes back to at least 2010.
And even more alarming is that these cases seem to be taking place with increasing frequency and across a wider and wider sphere. Attorneys, foundations, unionists, academics and the highest judge in the land have been targeted.
It is possible that some are opportunistic crimes, but a general pattern, the brazen nature and the timing suggests otherwise.
For instance, last month the supposedly highly secure offices of the Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng were penetrated and 15 computers containing important sensitive information – including personal details about the country's judges – were removed.
This happened just one day after the Constitutional Court delivered a scathing judgment on the SA Social Services Agency pension saga.
On the same day the Pretoria High Court also ruled that Hawks boss Berning Ntlemeza’s appointment was unlawful and invalid.
Interestingly a year earlier a heavily armed group of men stormed into the offices of the Helen Suzman Foundation, held up a security guard and removed files from cabinets. This happened as the HSF was interdicting the very same Ntlemeza from exercising his powers on the basis of a lack of fitness to hold the job.
The theft of information is not only about obtaining confidential details. It is also an intimidatory tactic designed to frighten people and create a climate of suspicion and fear.
It belongs to a family of sinister and highly undemocratic practices such as surveillance of private citizens and issuing death threats.
None of these have any place in a democracy but are unfortunately taking place all too frequently in this country, in direct contradiction of basic rights such as the right to privacy, free flow of information and freedom of movement.
These are invariably the tactics the powerful but highly compromised who fear ordinary people, especially when they engage in a struggle for political freedom and justice.
Many South Africans over a certain age are all too familiar with these tactics. They were the commonly used tools of the masters of apartheid. That they have made a reappearance in a liberated South Africa is unconscionable. They can never be tolerated if people wish to remain free.