The M&G complaint, which dealt with concerns affecting mainly Sam Sole, Stefaans Brümmer and former editor Ferial Haffajee, detailed *incidents over a number of years and ran to 25 pages.
In a brief response this week Ngcakani found no wrongdoing on the part of the NIA or the CID: “Following extensive investigations on all your complaints with the intelligence *services, we have found that at all stages both the NIA and the crime intelligence division acted within the regulatory framework governing the activities of the intelligence services, which includes acting within the precepts set out in Rica.”
Rica is the Regulation of Interception of Communications Act, which regulates the legal interception of private communication. He found the crime intelligence division “at no stage abused their powers”.
Reacting to the findings, Laurie Nathan, who served on an intelligence review commission that delivered a detailed report to former intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils, said *Ngcakani’s response was an indication of the problems raised by the commission: “The law governing interception of communication allows the NIA to bug telephone calls, with the permission of a judge, if there are reasonable grounds to believe that this is necessary to gather information on an actual or potential threat to the public health, safety or national security of the republic.
“These grounds are far too wide. The law provides no definition of ‘national security’, a term that can be interpreted very broadly. The result is that the NIA is able to spy on people and organisations that are engaged in lawful activity and are not suspected of any involvement in crime.
“This undermines constitutional rights and freedoms, draws the NIA into the arena of party politics and is open to abuse.
full story from M&G here
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