Chairperson; Minister of State Security; Ministers and Deputy Ministers present; Chairperson of the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence; hon members; Acting Director-General of the State Security Agency; Inspector-General of Intelligence; distinguished guests; members of the intelligence community; intelligence veterans; and fellow South Africans, here I stand today, to say that I care, and that I support the Budget Vote of our Minister of State Security.
It is an undeniable fact that, since the amalgamation of the erstwhile former intelligence services into the civilian intelligence community, particularly the National Intelligence Agency and the South African Secret Service, there has been a disturbing duplication of resources on the corporate side, and a lack of effective intelligence co-ordination and integration on the operational side.
We have seen one Minister after another grapple with the problem of downmanagement of costs. The current restructuring initiative seems to be addressing the long-standing problems which were identified a long time ago, but needed political muscle to be commenced with and brought to a head.
It is also necessary to make mention of the speech that President Jacob Zuma delivered at the National Intelligence Service Day celebrations at Musanda on 10 April 2012, in which he noted:
The restructuring was informed by the desire to improve the capacity and quality of intelligence in a radically changing global environment.
You see, hon members, what our President was alluding to was the fact that our world is increasingly being besieged by new threats that require a response from the intelligence services in order to mitigate and thwart them. Today we see the collapse of economies, which positions states and regional blocs against one other. The situation in the Eurozone and Asia bears testimony to this development. Questions are being raised as to whether these crises are manipulated or are a result of dark forces pulling strings to hurt the economies. Questions will always be asked about the readiness of intelligence to meet these challenges.
On the domestic front we have witnessed upheavals in the streets of our cities, which in many instances turn into violence and destruction, and this leaves the authorities unprepared to handle them. We trust the agency will pay attention to this phenomenon and supply early warning so as to avert a situation where these actions turn violent.
I stand here and support the Budget Vote, and I would like to remind hon members that the Department of State Security is seized with the objective of supporting government in order for it to achieve the outcome of ensuring that the department cares. That means all people in the Republic of South Africa should be safe, and should feel safe at all times, and that the Department of State Security should create a better South Africa and contribute to a better and safer Africa and the world. It is in line with the constitutional imperative of the collective pursuit of national security, which is integral to the primary constitutional objective of establishing a constitutional state based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights.
Chapter 11 of our Constitution recognises the importance of national security, and to that end contains principles and provisions that govern the national security of the Republic. I would like to indicate that the process that was embarked on by the Minister of State Security, in reviewing and restructuring the intelligence architecture in order to ensure that we have professional and efficient state security machinery, led to the progress made by the Minister of State Security in the quest to establish a well-oiled civilian intelligence service with effective and efficient discharge of its mandate. The key consideration was to look at areas where there was duplication and where there were stovepipes, and to ensure the sharing of scarce resources within the intelligence community.
The restructuring initiative by the Minister has given effect to the following measures. They are, firstly, a shift in focus from management to creating professionalism by capacitating the core business of the State Security Department. Then there are alignment and consolidation of the policies of the State Security Department, instead of having separate policies for Nia and Sass.
The State Security Agency restructuring process was guided by its Director- General, Mr Dennis T Dlomo, and management and, with the support of the Minister of State Security, Dr Cwele, developed an identity of "I care". Chairperson, please allow me, for the benefit of the House, to indicate the meaning of "I care". The letter "I" stands for "integrity". "C" is for "commitment, competence and collaboration". "A" is for "accountability". "R" is for "reliability, responsibility, and responsiveness", and "E" for "excellence".
There is also the creation of a unifying organisational culture of quarterly tribal assemblies within the State Security Agency at headquarters and in the provinces, to cultivate loyalty and national pride among members and to serve as a reminder to our intelligence officers of our allegiance to the Constitution of our country.
Furthermore, the Intelligence Academy, through the restructuring process, has commenced with an intake of State Security Agency core and noncore members for training in various intelligence core business.
Then there is the intake of cadets within the State Security Agency for basic training, in order to have a pool of well-trained and qualified members.
Finally, there is the creation of a State Security Veterans Association in line with applicable departmental regulations.
Our Constitution brings about a culture of good governance across all spheres of government in our country. The security services are not immune from this constitutional injunction. Good governance is also part of our service delivery ethic, and therefore our services have to be rendered accountable by our oversight mechanisms. In this regard, our intelligence services are overseen by the parliamentary Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence, JSCI, and the Office of the Inspector-General of Intelligence. This is to assure the public that our intelligence services act within the rule of law, with probity and respect for human rights, as entrenched in Chapter 2 of our Constitution.
In closure, I am happy that through the Minister's restructuring process the General Intelligence Laws Amendment Bill has already gone through the process of parliamentary legislative stages and will soon become law. These enabling provisions will ensure that the State Security Agency is on a sound legislative footing as an intelligence service.
The Bill, once enacted, will disestablish Sass and Nia, and in their stead confer the domestic, foreign and signals intelligence mandate on the State Security Agency. This is a constructive development which will bring about a co-ordinated and integrated intelligence collection, production and dissemination effort in the quest to create a decision advantage for policy makers in line with the constitutional imperatives of intelligence as a co- ordinated activity.
This development in the civilian intelligence community does accord with global trends which favour a new integrated and co-ordinated intelligence enterprise, with emphasis on customer orientation. This, hon Chairperson, members of the House and distinguished guests, was what President J G Zuma alluded to in his address on National Intelligence Service Day, when he said:
... the democratic state led by the African National Congress, will never undertake any activity or pass any law that undermines the security of the South African people, or which violates their Constitutional rights.
It is against this background that the ANC supports the Budget Vote of the Minister of State Security, Dr S C Cwele. Malibongwe igama lamakhosikazi! [Let the name of the women be praised!]
HON MEMBERS: Malibongwe! [Let them be praised!]