Pressure point — New legislation impacts RICA, and why legal surveillance reforms are urgently required

From left: Acting Executive Director at Intelwatch and Consultant at ALT Advisory Murray Hunter, Advocacy Coordinator at the amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism Caroline James and Investigative Journalist at Intelwatch Heidi Swart.

RICA is currently being renewed for next year’s publication, but there are concerns about the government possibly accessing and monitoring the data of every South African in the name of “national security”. Amabhungane’s managing partner Sam Sole had been the subject of state surveillance, which drove the centre to challenge the Act’s constitutionality. Sole’s privacy had been unlawfully invaded and thus infringed section 14 of the Constitution.

“The court said that the judge that oversees the surveillance requests needs more independence, and so the bill kindof said, okay, instead of just the minister appointing this person, it will be the minister with the chief justice, fairly uncontroversial. “What makes things worse is that this new General Intelligence Laws Amendment Bill actually does make provision for the National Communication Centre, but it has none of the safeguards that are in RICA currently, nor any of the new safeguards that have been brought about by the RICA Amendment Bill.”

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