Picket Gauteng legislature over Intelligence Amendment Bill

The campaign demands that the contents of this Bill should be subject to a rigorous public review process as a matter of urgency. The Bill should be redrafted in line with the Matthews Commission recommendations on the domestic intelligence mandate and the interception of communications, or it should be shelved until the public participatory review process is complete.

Concerns

• The Bill retains the dangerously broad domestic intelligence mandate contained in the National Strategic Intelligence Act, whereas it is desirable that the state security agency's (SSA) mandate should be clearly and narrowly defined
  
• The Bill expands the agency's powers to monitor and intercept domestic communications, without adequate regulation or judicial oversight
  
• The Bill would result in diminishing public oversight of the agency where it is desirable that the agency's budget, policies and non-operational activities be open to public scrutiny
  
• With regard to the definition of national security, we believe that both this Bill, and the Protection of State Information Bill, do not adequately narrow the domestic mandate of the SSA
  
• This Bill allows provision for extraordinary protection for the SSA since any matter dealt with by, or relating to the functions of, the SSA may be considered per definition to be a national security matter and therefore subject to protection from public scrutiny
  
• As with the Protection of State Information Bill, the pertinent protection afforded to "economic, scientific or technological secrets vital to the Republic" may bring commercial information under the mandate of the SSA
  
• The Bill does not require a warrant for interception of foreign communications and there is a lack of judicial oversight for such operations. All citizens of the world are entitled to the right to privacy, enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which South Africa recognises.

Together with the Protection of State Information Bill, this Bill contributes to the expanding veil of secrecy being drawn over state agencies by securocrats, which is an affront to the principles of open access to information, accountability to the public and transparency of governance. There is a deep concern about the apparent centralisation of intelligence structures, as well as the speed at which this Bill is scheduled to reach finalisation and without being subject to a process of meaningful public participation.

There is a demand that a process of meaningful public consultation must take place, that the Bill be redrafted, and that the above mentioned concerns be addressed by the Ad-hoc Committee of the National Assembly on the General Intelligence Laws Amendment Bill.

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