17 June 2003
Madam Speaker, Honourable Ministers, Honourable Members
The Civilian Intelligence Services have been undergoing a thorough renovation in the past few years, to streamline the services, to make them more efficient and to effect a full transformation from instruments of control and manipulation to tools for building our country, our region and indeed our continent.
I say renovation because there needs to be some breaking down of what was there, and some building up of new parts of the services, but ultimately what we seek to achieve are services which have increased value.
There is no more appropriate time for the services to be doing such a renovation. The world is experiencing a series of shudders from global events and pressures and none of us is immune to them. The integrity of the reports that our services produce is of utmost importance. The accuracy of information, its reliability and quality are paramount to the integrity of our services and to achieving our peace, security and development objectives.
Honourable members will be well aware of the problems that face the oversight committees in the legislatures in the United States and in Britain regarding the accuracy and integrity of their Intelligence community's reports leading up to the invasion of Iraq.
The value of the product of our services is crucial. The JSCI as the oversight committee in this parliament will need to continue being vigilant in this regard.
While issues of the integrity of the intelligence product are a common to all the services I would like here to address the work of the South African Secret Service, (or SASS) our external service, and the particular challenges they face.
SASS has made progress in the past year in several areas. Part of the work of the oversight Committee is to monitor such progress.
Firstly, SASS has focussed in the past year on aligning its work, both in its structures and functions, with the Department of Foreign Affairs. Both departments work abroad and it is necessary for them to work closely together to avoid duplication. To this end SASS and DFA have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding to prevent such duplication and to work more closely with one another. The committee supports these moves and regards this initiative as contributing to the better coordination of government generally and to the maximising of resources to support the interests of the country.
Secondly, SASS has embarked on a programme to review and upgrade its IT systems. The security of the communications environment in the services is crucial. A disaster recovery plan, which is long overdue, is being implemented, and programmes are in place to improve the levels of computer skills amongst the members of the service.
Thirdly, the JSCI has been monitoring Auditor Generals reports on internal controls which have now been improved in respect of assets.
Fourthly, efforts in the services to improve career-pathing and succession planning are welcomed.
Financial constraints are always a consideration and particularly in respect of the South African Secret Services who operate internationally and whose budget is directly affected by the fortunes of our currency. While watching the Rand dip and dive and - although I must add in recent months climb - SASS must try and plan and budget for its work and on top of that extend it representation abroad. We are mindful of the challenges that this poses for the services.
One of the outstanding issues that the committee is dealing with is the question of tax on allowance of members serving abroad. It is intended that the committee will engage with the Treasury on this matter to ensure a mutually agreeable solution to the problem.
SASS, like all government departments, takes its direction from national priorities. Through its central role in the formation of the African Union and the NEPAD programme, South Africa has signalled its intention to work towards the building of a better Africa.
In this regard the SASS has a vital support role to play in the country's international endeavours especially in our continental work. The effort of our secret service underpins the South African, and indeed the African Union effort to achieve peace, stability and development on the continent.
It is pleasing that the focus on Africa has resulted in the addition of several new stations in Africa based on identified national priorities. However, work must still be done to further increase the SASS representation abroad to ensure a presence in each of the stations abroad identified as key for South African interests.
SASS has embarked on interactions with other African services to exchange information, and in some cases share resources and training.
In building our relationships with other African countries members of the JSCI have also been involved in working with our counterparts on the continent to share information and to learn about the work of other parliaments with respect to oversight and accountability of Intelligence services. Although there is no other committee on the continent that is established as the JSCI is, to oversee the work of the services, there are other parliamentary committees dealing with security issues. Our committee members have had interactions with MP's from Ghana, Nigeria, and Egypt in this regard and are planning to meet with members of the Malawian parliament as well.
The building of a better Africa is a key challenge for South Africa and will once again involve the gathering and processing of accurate and timeous information. The efforts of SASS are central to our well-being as a nation but also to the development of a new Africa.
SASS's work supports the country's efforts in priority areas in the SADC region the Great Lakes region and works with multi-lateral institutions such as the African Union, SADC formations and the United Nations.
It is no small measure due to the efforts of our services, for example that the United Nations was able to hold the biggest ever global conference in Johannesburg last year, the World Summit on Sustainable Development. We need to salute the efforts of our services in the behind-the-scenes work that took place in order for such a huge and important conference to go off without incident. The same can be said for the launch of the African Union in July last year as well as the Cricket World Cup for that matter.
Through these efforts South Africa has gained a reputation for a well organised and desirable destination for world events and we can be justifiably proud of that.
As I have said, key to the continued development of our South African Intelligence Services is the improvement of the accuracy, integrity and timeous presentation of information gathered and prepared in reports.
The JSCI will continue to monitor compliance of the services with their respective mandates, as well progress towards the realisation of all the goals of the services. At the same time we will support them towards the achievement of our mutual objectives, which are to ensure the security of government and its institutions and every citizen of this country.
The ANC and the JSCI support this budget vote.