Ramaphosa signs critical new laws for South Africa written by Ronelle Snyders

[Nat Quinn]

Cyril Ramaphosa has signed into law the General Intelligence Acts Amendment Bill, which he says will form a foundation for reforms to South Africa’s intelligence services.

The amendment act amends the National Strategic Intelligence Act of 1994, the Intelligence Services Act of 2002 and the Intelligence Services Review Act of 1994.

Among other reforms, the new law dissolves the current State Security Agency as a national government department and replaces it with two separate departments.

The new departments are:

The Foreign Intelligence Service (FIS) which will be responsible for collecting foreign intelligence to identify opportunities and threats to National Security, and
The Domestic Intelligence Agency (DIA) which will be responsible for counterintelligence as well as collecting domestic intelligence to identify threats to national security.
The laws make provisions that both departments will be accompanied by enhanced oversight and accountability, Ramaphosa said.

The amendment act also re-establishes the South African National Academy of Intelligence (SANAI) and Intelligence Training Institute for both domestic and foreign intelligence capabilities.

The wide-ranging amendments implement the recommendations of the 2018 Presidential High-Level Review Panel on the State Security Agency (SSA) and the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture, Corruption and Fraud in the Public Sector—also known as the Zondo Commission.

The law also addresses concerns about bulk interception by intelligence services of internet traffic entering or leaving South Africa by introducing new measures, including authorization within the intelligence services and court reviews of such interception.

The law provides that the administration, financial management and expenditures of intelligence service entities are within the scope of the oversight of the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence.

The committee is a multi-party committee of Parliament that processes public complaints about the intelligence services and monitors their finances and operations.

The newly enacted amendments also provide greater autonomy for the Inspector General of Intelligence and the National Intelligence Coordinating Committee (NICOC) to make administrative and functional decisions.

Although many welcomed the signing of the new laws, they were not without controversy and opposition.

Several civil society groups have expressed concerns about potential overreach and giving the government too much power to spy and invade the privacy of citizens.

There were also concerns about vague or broad definitions in the laws, which would seemingly give the state extensive powers to subject anyone to intrusive surveillance in the name of “national security”.

 

source:Ramaphosa signs critical new laws for South Africa – Volksskrag News

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