Minister in the Presidency responsible for State Security Khumbudzo Ntshavheni says the Spy Bill has been able to address issues raised by the Prof. Sandy Africa report and the High Level Review Panel, chaired by Sydney Mufamadi, to fix intelligence agencies.
She said the General Intelligence Laws Amendment Bill, known as the Spy Bill, has followed up on the recommendations and findings of the two reports by splitting the State Security Agency (SSA) into two services.
SSA Acting Director-General Loyiso Jafta said the bill has addressed all the wrongs that were done in 2009 when the National Intelligence Agency and the SA Secret Service were merged to form the SSA.
Jafta also said the bill addressed concerns raised by Inspector-General of Intelligence Imtiaz Fazel and co-ordinator of the National Intelligence Co-ordinating Committee (Nicoc) Gab Msimanga that it needed to be more independent and able to appoint their own staff.
Ntshavheni and Jafta were on Thursday briefing members of the ad hoc committee in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) on the Spy Bill.
The bill was passed by the National Assembly two weeks ago and has been referred to the NCOP for concurrence.
Ntshavheni said the bill sought to fix areas that were raised by the Sandy Africa and Mufamadi reports on SSA.
President Cyril Ramaphosa had committed to implement the findings of the two reports.
“What the legislation seeks to do is what the president committed to do after the recommendations of the High Level Review Panel on the State Security Agency, which sought to split the agency into two agencies, one dealing with domestic matters and other dealing with foreign matters.
“The Bill proposes the regulatory framework for compliance, monitoring and co-ordination of the intelligence services. You will recall that part of the issues raised by both the Sandy Africa report and the High Level Review Panel was the issue of the lack of coordination among national intelligence structures. To that effect, chairperson and honourable members, we have passed and notified, in consultation with the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence, the regulations for intelligence coordination. They are coming into effect on April 5,” said Ntshavheni.
Jafta said they have to implement the recommendations and findings of the two reports by Africa and Mufamadi.
He said the High Level Review Panel, led by Mufamadi, had found that the merger of the National Intelligence Agency and SA Secret Service must be scrapped.
“The bill arises principally from two issues that were raised over the past while. The first one is the recommendations and findings of the High Level Review Panel, which made a finding that the amalgamation of the South African Secret Service and the National Intelligence Agency were substantively wrong in policy. They then recommended that the SSA must be split up so that the country reverts to the original architecture post-1994. The bill in its present incarnation does provide for that. It fulfils the recommendations of the High Level Review Panel,“ said Jafta.
He added that the Inspector-General of Intelligence and the head of Nicoc had called for greater autonomy.
Fazel and Msimanga had told members of the ad hoc committee in the National Assembly last December they want more powers.
They called for the bill to give them powers to appoint their own staff members.
Fazel even said at the time that he wanted his findings to be binding, as this would force intelligence agencies to implement them.
Msimanga said there was interference by ministers in the past, which led to divisions in intelligence structures.
Jafta said the bill sought to address the issues raised by Fazel and Msimanga.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
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