Interception Centres News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Judge Bess Nkabinde calls for more independence for Office for Interception Centres, which reports to State Security Agency, parliament hears

Two pending pieces of legislation will enable the government to monitor en masse the communications of every South African.

There are critical shortcomings in the police’s surveillance capabilities and the outlook is bleak. Observers say the problem is political.

The parliament of South Africa’s oversight committee on intelligence recently tabled its 2019/2020 annual report. The engrossing and depressing read documents the failings of the country’s spy agencies in unflinching detail. If not addressed, these failings may leave the country exposed to even more serious crime and national security threats than it has faced already. The spy agencies were weakened during former president Jacob Zuma’s term. The report shows that these weaknesses have not been addressed adequately under President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The judge responsible for authorising the covert monitoring of communications has found that claims by journalists that they were being spied on were credible.