Abuses at SAâs spy agency show poor governance, but it can be fixed
By The Conversation
Moses B. Khanyile
Earlier this year allegations of widespread financial irregularities and distortion of the mandate of South Africaâs State Security Agency were made at the judicial commission on grand corruption. The agency is responsible for collecting intelligence on domestic and foreign threats to the country.
The allegations point to a complete breakdown of corporate governance. They have serious implications for the agencyâs operational performance, matters of national trust, reputation and international intelligence sharing arrangements.
Corporate governance is essentially about ensuring accountability in how an entity conducts its work and uses its resources to achieve its goal. Internal controls must be in place and auditable.
Globally, intelligence services trade in secrets and conduct covert operations. But this does not exempt them from public scrutiny, parliamentary oversight, and audit processes.
Constitutional court bans bulk Internet surveillance in South Africa
In a landmark judgment handed down on Thursday, the constitutional court banned the South African state from bulk surveillance of online communication, preventing security agencies from hoovering up Internet data.
This sort of surveillance, which is routinely done by agencies such as the National Security Agency in the US and GCHQ in the UK – both of which have routinely tapped into submarine Internet cables – is now illegal in South Africa thanks to the country’s highest court.
The minister of state security had appealed an earlier high court judgment on the legality of bulk communication surveillance. The lower court had already declared bulk surveillance unlawful. The judgment by the constitutional court means the state has run out of legal options and any bulk surveillance is now unlawful and invalid.