Chairperson, Ministers and Deputy Ministers present, hon members, distinguished guests, members of our intelligence community, intelligence veterans and fellow South Africans, on 2 May 1994, President Nelson Mandela called on all South Africans to "join together to celebrate the birth of democracy". He implored us to "build the future together ... to work together to tackle the problems we face as a nation". He said that "We must, together and without delay, begin to build a better life for all South Africans."
To us this includes fighting poverty, creating jobs, building houses, providing education and bringing peace and security for all.
Seventeen years down the line, as we table this Budget Vote, the nation has done much in redressing the socioeconomic inequalities caused by decades of apartheid and colonial oppression. We are therefore pleased to report to this House that our nation is prospering, stable and secure.
There are no discernible threats to our constitutional order. The strategic choices we have made as the ANC government have ensured that together we developed a strong patriotism and national identity, and strengthened and protected our democratic institutions. Notwithstanding the prevailing peace and security, we remain vigilant and united in our collective effort to uphold the national security of our young developmental state.
We are relentlessly pursuing this mandate by focusing on the following objectives: firstly, the development of an integrated and focused multisource collection capability that advances our national interests and mitigates against threats identified in our intelligence estimate; secondly, the development of a highly effective and target-driven counterintelligence capability to defend our country's national interests; and, thirdly, these priorities will be supported by focused skills development, improved analytic and technical capabilities, good corporate governance and accountability, and an organisational culture that carefully balances the secrecy required to achieve our mandate and openness based on the values of commitment to democracy, loyalty and professionalism.
The restructuring of the civilian intelligence structures into the State Security Agency has indeed taken off under the stewardship of the director- general, Ambassador Jeff Maqetuka. There is no going back and duplicating the past. It is also appropriate at this stage to thank Prof Sandy Africa - I'm not sure where she is - who was seconded by the University of Pretoria as head of our Corporate Services to guide the integration of different agencies. She has been the engine of this restructuring process. Prof Africa, as you go back to this outstanding African institution, kindly convey our gratitude to the senior vice-principal, Prof Chris de Beer, and the principal, Prof Cheryl de la Rey, for their patriotism, loyalty and partnership in building this new department. Indeed, "Working together, we can build a safe nation and a secure world."
We have concluded and approved the new structures of the agency. We have filled the critical posts of chief financial officer, chief information officer and head: internal audit. In addition, we have tightened up our regulatory mechanism by issuing the necessary directive and uniform conditions of service for the agency.
Owing to the different IT systems that were in place, the process of integration of these IT systems is taking longer than expected, but we are doing this in order to ensure that information is secured and migrated properly to maintain accuracy and integrity. However, we have made progress in that we now have a single asset register, payroll, budget management, financial accounting and procurement systems. It is envisaged that the system integration process will be finalised in the next financial year and will result in savings for the organisation.
As part of the next milestone, we have continued to make appointments particularly in the senior management of our agency. We will focus our efforts on addressing the imbalance in gender and ageing personnel profile.
In order to codify the Presidential Proclamation of 2009 that created the State Security Agency, we are completing preliminary consultations on the State Security Bill, which is due to be considered by Cabinet before tabling in Parliament this year.
In his 2011 state of the nation address, President Jacob Zuma declared 2011 as the year of job creation. We will focus on the retention of our members and recruitment of the young and unemployed in our society. This year we plan to fill approximately 300 posts. We shall prioritise the filling of all vacant funded posts in areas such as analysis, vetting, economic intelligence, border intelligence and IT security.
The restructuring process also involved the development and integration of our intelligence technology platforms. We have concluded the audit of technology resources at the National Communication Centre and at the Interception and Communications Security facilities.
We continue to provide lawful intercepts to law-enforcement agencies. In the last financial year, the quality of our information was further enhanced by the use of new positioning tools. This contributed significantly to our fight against crime. In this financial year, we intend to conclude policy on the electronic direction system and on the distribution network in order to improve service delivery and reduce the turnaround time. We will do this after consultations with the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence and Judge Khumalo, who is responsible for issuing directions on communications.
The State Security Agency has the responsibility of determining the national security posture within the organs of state. Comsec conducted security assessments of 135 organs of state, consisting of 32 national departments, 24 provincial departments, 28 municipalities and 51 public entities. This year we will be focusing on obtaining full international accreditation of our National Trust Centres.
We have made significant progress in finalising the National Security Strategy alongside our conceptualisation of the National Interest Doctrine. Consultations with critical role-players in and outside the security structures have been initiated to enrich these concepts. The State Security Agency has conducted research to address long-term challenges in the food, water and energy security sectors.
Another strategic sector that has been identified is dual use technologies that have both security and commercial applications. These technologies involve major aspects of our country's competitiveness and innovative capacity for commercial market access and national security. In this financial year, the agency will intensify its work of co-ordinating the interdepartmental task team that is conducting an assessment of resources and activities of the peaceful programmes related to the field of nuclear, biological, chemical, aerospace and missile technologies.
The task team is expected to develop a national strategy for promoting research, technological development, innovation, co-ordination, integration and oversight in the field of these dual use technologies in the Republic. The strategy will also ensure that these technologies do not find their way into the hands of criminals and terrorist networks.
In 2010, the National Intelligence Co-ordinating Committee, Nicoc, led the work of stakeholder departments to prepare for the setting up of the Border Management Agency. This work was based on the understanding that the BMA would be a new structure with the requisite powers to enable the state to address long-standing problems of fragmentation, duplication and the ineffective use of resources in the border environment.
The model approved by the justice, crime prevention and security - JCPS - Cabinet committee is moving away from the current co-ordination model to an integration model that provides for the integration of functions, staff, infrastructure and the centralisation of authority around issues of security at our ports of entry. The migration to the new model will be completed by 2014.
Regarding the illicit economy, in 2010 we reported a loss in the gold industry amounting to about R6,7 billion. We have, with the co-operation and collaboration of other government departments, subsequently scoped the extent of the illicit economy, which is estimated to be about 10% of our GDP, quantifying a loss of about R178 billion for our economy. This illicit economy has the potential of seriously compromising our new economic growth path, and is costing South Africa hundreds of thousands of jobs. The scoping exercise revealed that this economic threat was rife in the mining, textile and tobacco industries. These illicit activities create unfair competition for legitimate businesses and industries, erode the corporate tax base, distort trade, violate foreign exchange regulations, and create conditions conducive to espionage. This year, the security and economic clusters of government will focus on attracting and developing specialised skills and sophisticated technologies to counter this illicit economy.
Coming to fraud and corruption: the eradication of fraud and corruption within the security cluster is an important prerequisite to fight this scourge in society as a whole. The State Security Agency, working together with the Financial Services Board, the FSB, completed an investigation relating to the management of the Group Life Scheme for our members of the civilian intelligence community. The report found that there were cases of theft, fraud and possible corruption by the insurance brokers, negligence by the insurance company, and mismanagement by the intelligence management.
The insurance company paid a significant ex gratia amount to compensate the fund. Those who committed fraud, particularly the broker, have been referred to the police and the National Prosecuting Authority for investigation and prosecution. In addition, the FSB withdrew the licence of the insurance broker and disbarred the owner for a period of five years.
Comsec will continue to focus on the protection of critical national infrastructure and information security. We have received positive feedback from the piloting of the early warning system conducted at Telkom and the State Information Technology Agency, Sita, indicating the need for a rigorous roll-out of this programme. I am pleased to note that the ad hoc committee on the Protection of Information Bill is progressing well, and I do hope they will consult and conclude this work in the near future.
This critical piece of legislation will be central to our resolve to deal with clear and present dangers that threaten our national security. We have commenced with the drafting of the regulations and directives to prioritise the implementation of the Bill when it becomes law.
We also seek to deal with the backlog on vetting, which is a critical aspect of the counterintelligence mandate, in the next three years. We intend to extend our vetting field units beyond the national departments to prioritised provincial and local spheres.
Accordingly, this endeavour will be accompanied by the exponential increase of our vetting and security advising capacity through recruitment and use of technology. We also intend to utilise intelligence veterans to improve the turnaround time. Particular focus will also be dedicated to the proper appointment and training of security managers across government departments and other state entities.
Securing major events has become the flagship programme of the agency. We continue to build on the lessons of securing events such as the 2010 Fifa World Cup. In May 2011, we conducted successful local government elections. The State Security Agency screened over 60 000 Independent Electoral Commission, IEC, officials and provided regular briefings and risk assessments to the IEC.
We have advanced plans to secure the 123rd International Olympic Committee General Council in Durban in the next few weeks. Similarly, we have commenced with the preparations to secure the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, COP 17, in Durban later this year.
We have also begun work to secure the celebration of 100 years of the ANC. This is turning out not to be an ANC or South African event, as it is being claimed by the whole of Africa and the democratic world. [Applause.]
We will intensify our efforts in strengthening our internal consultation mechanisms to make sure that an environment conducive to work is created for all our members.
Since the beginning of this year, Africa has had a number of developments, positive and negative, in its various regions. SADC continues to be the most stable region, despite challenges in Madagascar, Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho and Swaziland. Our radar screen will focus on these countries in our quest for democracy, peace and stability. In addition, we have also now launched our SADC Early Warning Centre in Botswana.
In East Africa we have improved relations, particularly with Rwanda, which is a positive development after our heads of state met. We remain concerned by the situation in Somalia and the increasing threat of piracy, particularly on our eastern shores. We also remain seized with the situation in Sudan and support those who were involved in the negotiations.
The popular uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East have brought into sharp focus the quest for freedom. We thus call, in Africa and beyond, for the recognition of these legitimate democratic aspirations, and an end to the use of force and violence.
We would also like to reiterate the AU call for an end to all hostilities in Libya, and we call on all Libyan authorities to involve inclusive dialogue and the creation of democratic institutions in their transition to democracy.
We also call on Nato not to depart from what has been required by the UN Security Council Resolutions 1970 and 1973, in order to ensure that the shooting of ordinary citizens is stopped and that the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Libya is dealt with.
In Cte d'Ivoire we will continue to work with President Ouattara in ensuring that there is unity among the people of Cte d'Ivoire, and we will assist them as they require assistance with the reconciliation processes.
Chairperson, as you know we are now a member of the Brics - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - organisation, and we are co-ordinating with the Bric countries in order to intensify our efforts in restructuring the UN, particularly the UN Security Council, and as South Africa we would like to develop. I thank you, Chairperson. [Applause.]