Hon Deputy Speaker, hon Deputy President, hon Ministers and hon members, the General Intelligence Laws Amendment Bill was introduced to Parliament by the Minister of State Security in November 2011. The ad hoc committee appointed to deal with the Bill was established on 24 November 2011. The Bill seeks to amend three existing laws. These are: the Intelligence Services Act of 2002, the National Strategic Intelligence Act of 1994 and Intelligence Services Oversight Act of 1994. The Bill also repeals the Electronic Communications Security (Pty) Ltd Act of 2002.
The purpose of the Bill is to accommodate the establishment of the State Security Agency. Hon Deputy Speaker, the hon members may recall that in 2009, President Zuma, by proclamation, provided for the establishment of the State Security Agency. The Bill therefore, simply provides for the amendments of three laws that I have mentioned, in order to consolidate the existing civilian intelligence entities into one entity, the State Security Agency under one Director-General, DG, as the accounting officer.
The main intelligence entities that are consolidated into the State Security Agency are: the National Intelligence Agency, normally referred to as Nia, which previously had its own DG; the SA Secret Service, Sass, which also had its own DG; the Electronic Communication Security (Pty) Ltd, which was the state-owned entity, normally referred to as Comsec; the offices of the interception centre; and the SA National Academy for Intelligence. These entities all had their own heads but will now report to the DG of the State Security Agency.
Hon Deputy Speaker, it is important to note that the State Security Agency has merely inherited the existing functions of the whole intelligence entities. Consequently, the Bill does not introduce any new functions. It is essentially a technical Bill. The Bill has had a rough ride through the committee. Hon members would note that from the time it was introduced, it's been in Parliament for some considerable time. Many hours were spent processing the Bill. Some changes were effected to this end. A number of proposals from the DA were incorporated into the Bill.
Hon Deputy Speaker, allow me to thank those who assisted the committee in its work: the hon Minister and members of his staff, the acting DG of State Security Agency and members of his staff, Advocate Hermann Smuts from the office of the Chief State Law Adviser, Advocate Ntuthuzelo Vanara from Parliamentary Legal Services, the committee secretary and the staff of Parliament, and most of all, the hon members. I think it is appropriate at this stage, hon members, to note that apart from the ANC - which was always there participating in the work of the committee and also the DA - there was little or no other participation from the other political parties. Cope occasionally visited the meeting, but other than that, Deputy Speaker, no other political parties participated in the work of the committee on this Bill. Hon members, hon Deputy Speaker, the ANC supports the Bill. [Applause.]
There was no debate.
Are there any objections to the Bill being read a second time? A request for declarations of vote has been received. I will now give up to three minutes to one member of each political party wishing to make a declaration.
Declarations of vote:
Hon Speaker, the General Intelligence Laws Amendment Bill, or "Spy Bill" as it became known, effectively provides legislative legs for the State Security Agency. The State Security Agency is the new centralised civilian intelligent service that looks very similar to the old Bureau for State Security. Therefore, we must work hard to ensure that even though the State Security Agency looks like the Bureau for State Security, it does not become like it. We were told that the General Intelligence Laws Amendment Bill was a piece of a technical legislation. We were also told that the major intelligence policy changes would have to wait for the introduction of a new State Security Agency Bill sometime in 2015. However, there were two issues that we felt they could not wait.
Firstly, there is a major concern that the State Security Agency's legislative mandate is too wide and provides legislative licence for it to become involved in gathering intelligence on lawful political activity. This perception that the State Security Agency has become involved in gathering intelligence on lawfully political activity has been driven by numerous intelligence scandals.
Therefore, we have proposed a number of amendments, some of which were accepted and, as a result, the State Security Agency's legislative mandate now specifically excludes lawful political activity, advocacy, and protest. This is by any measure a significant democratic step forward.
Secondly, there is also a major concern that the State Security Agency circumvents provisions requiring a designated judge to authorise the interception of communication. The concern here is that in gathering foreign signals intelligence, the State Security Agency will use its bulk interception capacity warehoused in the little known and even less spoken about National Communication Centre to sidestep the designated judge. We proposed a number of amendments that ensure that foreign signals intelligence gathering were subject to the regulation of the Interception of Communications Act. However, these proposed amendments were rejected. All references to foreign signals intelligence were systematically purged, including even the amendments proposed by the State Security Agency itself.
The regulation of foreign signals intelligence gathering has now been relegated to the murky world of secret regulations. With one step forward and one democratic step back, we will oppose the General Intelligence Laws Amendment Bill. Thank you. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
House Chair and Deputy President, we are referred to as the occasional visitors to the committee. Let me say right from the onset that we are going to support the Amendment Bill and provide the reason as to why we support it. As the hon Maynier has already indicated, there is a new clause that has been introduced in this particular Bill to ensure that there is true compliance with the Constitution. We were very worried about the initial reluctance from the ruling party on this particular clause.
However, we have had engagements with them and realised that this is important. In fact, this clause is not only important to the opposition party. It is important to all of us in the country, including ordinary citizens. This clause ensures that section 199 (5) and (7) of the Constitution is fully complied with. That is the reason why we are going to be supporting this Bill. We will support this Bill because of the inclusion of that clause that recognises the importance of the Constitution. Furthermore, we support the fact that all Members of Parliament can then communicate freely, knowing that there is not going to be anybody listening to that conversation.
However, we were concerned about the Amendment Bill and the White Paper process. That process consists of two steps that are separate from each other. Ordinarily, the White Paper informs us about the type of legislation we have to adopt. However, even under these circumstances, we support the Bill before us, particularly for the reasons I have already indicated - that as a supreme law, the Constitution is contained in this particular Amendment Bill. Thank you. [Applause.]
House Chair, Deputy President and hon members, there is nothing to worry about with this Bill. The ANC supports the Bill. [Interjections.] The Bill seeks to give effect to the presidential proclamation and fulfils provisions of section 209(1) of the Constitution of the Republic.
The General Intelligence Laws Amendment Bill, Gilab, as it is affectionately known, is a technical Bill. It does not address the policy matters that you are so scared of. The process of introducing this Bill will ensure stability and provide clarity on the State Security Agency's delivery mandate. That is what we want to do. The ANC supports the Bill, as I have already indicated. Thank you very much. [Applause.]
Bill read a second time (Democratic Alliance dissenting).