Renewed pressure to clean up the spooks
To anyone who has been listening, everything I have told you is public knowledge.” As a journalist I have heard these words countless times when speaking to government officials and politicians on the phone in a bid to get context while working on a story.
I have also been asked to put my phone on airplane mode, switch it off and put it in my handbag when meeting socalled sources. We have been living in a state of paranoia for years, all because of the fear that we are being spied on by elements in the state.
However, until Monday there was no way of really knowing whether your conversations were being listened to by crime intelligence or state security. In a groundbreaking judgment, the high court in Pretoria ruled this week that no South African is to be spied on by the state without eventually being informed.
It also outlawed mass surveillance — the intricate practice of spying and analysing South Africans’ phone calls and text messages — as there is no legislation providing for it.
The ruling came after Sam Sole, a reporter at amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism, asked the court to declare some sections of the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act (Rica) unconstitutional and to tackle the problem of bulk surveillance by the National Communications Centre.
This is a victory for all South Africans, not just journalists, politicians and whistle-blowers. It is of national importance that our intelligence structures operate with citizens’ interests and safety as a priority, not in the interests of political leaders.
Jacob Zuma’s time in office was characterised by abuse of intelligence structures for political ends, in which the workings of the State Security Agency (SSA) and crime intelligence were shrouded in secrecy, with little or no oversight. But this manipulation of intelligence started before Zuma ascended to power.
Intelligence services in SA have been embroiled in a number of scandals over the years. In 2006 former intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils established a ministerial review commission on intelligence, “necessitated by certain malpractices and abuses of state power and resources which had occurred” in the National Intelligence Agency, he said at the time.
The inquiry found that there were serious problems with the intelligence structures and made recommendations on how to fix this. However, the report was shelved after former president Thabo Mbeki’s removal from office.
In 2009, Zuma became president of the country and established what is now known as the SSA, which was formed out of the amalgamation of the domestic and foreign intelligence structures. He also appointed allies such as Richard Mdluli, former crime intelligence boss, to critical positions.
The intelligence services increasingly operated as a law unto themselves; serving the country and its citizens was less important than serving the political masters of the day.
After Zuma’s removal from office in 2018, President Cyril Ramaphosa established a highlevel review panel of the SSA. This panel, which handed its report to Ramaphosa earlier this year, found the SSA had used its powers to advance political goals during the past decade.
The report finally laid bare oft-repeated allegations that Zuma used its machinery and resources for political ends. The redacted report called for widescale reform of the SSA and how it is held to account, and made recommendations — once again. Ramaphosa has already said he will implement the recommendation to split the SSA into foreign and domestic intelligence services.
The high-level review panel released its report in March. In July, state security minister Ayanda Dlodlo promised that steps were being taken to establish the SSA as an ethical, nonpoliticised and professional institution and to restore its damaged reputation. Crime intelligence has a new head, Peter Jacobs, the first permanent intelligence boss since Mdluli’s 2011 suspension.
Will Ramaphosa be the one to reform the country’s intelligence services or will we see more of the same? The depoliticisation of all intelligence structures is critical, especially in a country whose citizens live in constant fear of crime. Solid intelligence is needed to properly fight the scourge.
So we wait to see if this happens. In the meantime we have had no comment from the government on its stance on the Rica judgment. One hopes that if Ramaphosa’s government is serious about transparency and cleaning up, the president will instruct ministers not to appeal against the judgment.
It has to accept that it cannot act with impunity and without being held accountable for decisions made in the dark under the guise of law enforcement. We need professional intelligence and policing agencies, just as we need a professional public service that does not depend on who is in office.