Unisa professor named for intelligence post

PARLIAMENT’S joint standing committee on intelligence has recommended that Professor Setlhomamaru Isaac Dintwe, head of Unisa’s police practice department, be appointed inspector-general of intelligence.

The inspector-general of intelligence is the official who must see to it that the country’s intelligence services, including its spies, act within the confines of the law.

The position has been vacant for almost 18 months since the term of the previous incumbent, Advocate Faith Radebe, ended on March 31 last year.

Part of the hold-up was caused by the fact that the ANC majority in the committee previously wanted former ANC MP Cecil Burgess to fill the position.

However, because the inspectorgeneral must be endorsed by twothirds of the National Assembly, the ANC needed the support of the opposition parties in parliament.

The National Assembly is expected to endorse Dintwe’s appointment, allowing President Jacob Zuma to make the appointment.

In response, the Right2Know campaign was lukewarm about the appointment because of questions over his political affiliations.

R2K spokesman Murray Hunter said: “The incoming inspector-general must take on a huge backlog of investigations, which will test the independence of the office.”