Poor handling of attempted insurrection raises security fears

The poor handling of the recent attempted insurrection by the country’s spooks has raised fears of worsening security
environment in South Africa and the entire region, especially with ongoing terrorism in northern Mozambique.

Security expert Prof Jakkie Cilliers called for the recruitment of a specialist with no political affiliation to run the country’s intelligence. He highlighted how solid professionalism was displayed by former apartheid era National Intelligence Service headed by Dr Niel Barnard, a professor recruited from the University of the Free State.

Cilliers, writing in the latest Institute for Security Studies newsletter, said it’s clear that South Africa’s failing security system must urgently be repurposed for the tasks at hand.

“It is clear that South Africa has an intelligence service in name only,” Cilliers said.

Add to the declining regional stability due to the insurgency in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province and recent events in eSwatini, and “it’s clear that South Africa’s security system must urgently be repurposed for the tasks at hand”.

He asked President Cyril Ramaphosa to appoint a

professional to run the intelligence. He said the president should find
someone with the appropriate knowledge, integrity and backbone to strip and rebuild the department.

“This can’t be just another party loyalist; it must be someone who can inspire such confidence that they will survive the
end of the Ramaphosa presidency,” Cilliers said.

Some analysts believed the country had been let down by authorities who failed to act to correct the failures of the country’s intelligence community.

They referred to a report by a state-appointed High Level Panel appointed to probe the State Security Agency (SSA), that had begun to gather dust.

ANC stalwart and former intelligence minister, Ronnie Kasrils, who served under Thabo Mbeki, asked Ramaphosa to act on the Mufamadi panel report to deal with the dysfunctional intelligence apparatus.

The panel, chaired by former minister Sydney Mufamadi, gave a damning report about how the SSA was used as a tool to fight factional battles within the ANC. It highlighted how various agencies were merged and then the single agency turned into a political tool.

The Mufamadi panel was appointed by Ramaphosa in 2018 following the deteriorating state of security and the continued use of spooks in ANC affairs.

It also found a parallel unit was established within the agency that was set up within the SSA to serve former president Jacob Zuma’s personal interests.

The details of the politicisation and abuse of the agency under Zuma and his various state security ministers, including Siyabonga Cwele and David Mahlobo and former SSA chief Arthur Fraser, were revealed by Mufamadi and several State Security department officials to the Zondo Commission early this year.

Cilliers said the failures of South Africa’s intelligence services and police, and the uninspiring performance of the military, revealed the absence of a coherent approach to national security. Each of these departments is in crisis.

Cilliers said the attempted insurrection affirmed the extent to which South Africa suffered from debilitating political, social and economic pathologies.

“With high unemployment, inequality, poverty, xenophobia and racism, the country will face internal security problems for years to come,” Cilliers said.

– ericn@citizen.co.za