Intelligence South Africa

Is China Africa's new imperialist power?

2007-01-05T07:39:00.000-08:00

Revolutionaries in Anglophone Africa have always seen Britain and France as the dominant imperialist powers on the continent, but other forces are emerging from the shadows to challenge their continued post-colonial dominance - and it’s not just the United States.

Southern African anarchist-communists would normally see the former British colony of South Africa as acting as a sub-imperialist power on behalf of the big capitalist powers and its own capitalist ruling class in the region, a sort of regional policeman as it were: if British interests in Swaziland are threatened by the democracy movement, we are sure that South African military might will intervene (as it did against Lesotho in 1998) to shore up the Swazi elite.

But the international scene is changing and today we can chart the rise of the People’s Republic of China as one of Africa’s most powerful kingmakers, whether backing the genocidal regime in Khartoum, or embarking on large-scale building projects including the new Luanda airport (in exchange for 10,000 barrels of crude oil a day) and the Number One Stadium in Kinshasa, a city that with its giant gold statue of a fat, Mao-like Laurent-Desire Kabila is looking like a city on the Yangtze River instead of the Congo (the DRC's mimicry of the Chinese national flag, before adopting a new flag this year, was too obvious to miss).
STATE CAPITALISM
Unlike the old Soviet Union, China has managed to engineer a successful transition from closed State-capitalism (the Maoist era) towards an export-orientated neo-liberal model. Its rapid economic growth and cheap goods - overseen by the Chinese Communist Party, the CCP - may see the country overtake the US as the largest manufacturing power worldwide by 2010.

This capitalist boom has been built on the back of a brutal suppression of the working class and peasantry. Strikes are illegal, dissidents are murdered, and the top 20% of households earn 42% of total urban incomes while the poorest 20% receive just 6%.

There has been a sharp rise in class struggle, with strikes rising from 8,150 in 1992 to 120,000 in 1999. Last year residents of the village of Huaxi, Zhejiang province, battled the police and local officials in hand-to-hand combat in April and drove them off. In December, hundreds of villagers armed with dynamite and petrol-bombs attacked police in Dongzhou, Guandong province, after police killed 20 villagers who had protested against land seized to build a power plant. A source close to the CCP central committee revealed last year that some 3-million workers took part in protests last year.

This is a country where the official monthly minimum wage is US$63 (compare that to US$45 to US$55 in rural and urban Vietnam, respectively, levels won by Vietnamese workers last year by embarking on wildcat strikes against their communist bosses), which has probably the worst mining fatality record in the world (the official Xhinhua News Agency figure is 5,986 dead in coal mines alone in 2005, resulting in some cases in miners armed with dynamite attacking their bosses), and multinational sweat-shop operations such as Nike and McDonalds setting up operations in special “economic exclusion zones”.

While terror and repression fuel China’s economy, the country’s capitalist ruling class looks outwards for cheap labour, raw materials and fuel supplies. Africa, economically sidelined in the world economic crisis starting in the 1970s, has suddenly become hot property. In 2005, the overall African economy grew at 5% - it’s fastest in decades - as demand for African raw materials shot up, with Chinese demand playing a key role. The 1980s and 1990s saw Africa fall off the investment map, with Africa getting less than 1% of all private direct investment to “third world” countries in 1995. Chinese (and South African) capitalists have increasingly taken the gap, and the trend is reversing.
CHINA IN AFRICA
China clandestinely traded with apartheid South Africa despite its funding of liberation movements in the country and in neighbouring countries like Zimbabwe. Formal relations with South Africa were re-established in 1998.

According to Martin Davies, the director for the Centre for Chinese Studies at Stellenbosch University (and a businessman with interests in Shanghai), last year, trade between China and Africa soared to US$35-million, with Chinese investment primarily centred on the oil industry, especially in Nigeria, Angola, Sudan and Equatorial Guinea.

Grim conditions in these countries have hardly worried the Chinese dictatorship: whether it is the total lack of democracy in Equatorial Guinea, the state-driven race-war in Sudan, or the fact that the blatant theft of oil wealth by the ruling cliques in Angola and Nigeria has fuelled conflict, with UNITA and the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, respectively trying to win back a slice of the pie.

So it will come as no surprise that Chinese helicopter gunships have been used against civilians in Darfur, according to human rights activists. China - which maintains an electronic listening post on the Comores - gave Sudan massive military aid between 1996 and 2003, including jet fighter aircraft, shipped tons of arms to Ethiopia and Eritrea prior to the outbreak of their border war in 1998, and has sold jets, military aircraft and radio-jamming equipment (to prevent outside broadcasts being heard inside the country) to the Zimbabwean regime.
SOUTH AFRICA
China has greased its imperialist wheels in Africa by scrapping over US$1-billion in debt owed by 32 African countries and the SABC reported this year that South Africa’s trade with China is growing at 26% annually.

South Africa is China’s largest trade partner in Africa, with trade growing 400% over the last six years. South Africa supplies iron ore and other raw materials, and receives manufactured goods - and a new trade agreement will see China limit textile exports but strengthen co-operation in areas like nuclear energy. Meanwhile, South Africa’s trade with traditional partners like Britain is shrinking.

However, the importance of relations with China is relatively limited, given the strength and diversity of South African capitalism. On the other hand, Chinese investment looms very large in weak economies like those of Equatorial Guinea. China’s interest in securing direct raw material supplies - for example, oil outside the OPEC cartel - means we can expect these relations to intensify, and African elites to solidify their links with the East Asian power. Africa now provides around 30% of China’s oil imports.
SOLIDARITY OR XENOPHOBIA
But what does all this investment in guns, ore and oil mean? COSATU has reacted with alarm to a deal struck between the South African and Chinese governments, warning that with the country flooded with cheap imported Chinese clothing (a 480% increase since 2003), the already-fragile domestic textile industry (62,000 jobs lost in the same period) could collapse.

COSATU leaders were embarrassed last year when members of their affiliated SA Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union demonstrated against the fact that the congress’ red T-shirts were made in China. Many mainland Chinese textile operations have relocated to Africa in order to by-pass European and American quotas on Chinese imports, but they have often brought with them brutal working conditions. At the same time, COSATU and its ally, the SACP continue to praise China as a socialist country.

Neither position is correct. COSATU’s “Buy South Africa” campaign will do nothing to stop cheap Chinese imports. It promotes anti-Chinese racism and feeds into the poisonous xenophobia that afflicts the local working class. It also suggests that all South Africans, capitalists and workers alike, have a common interest. Nothing is further from the truth: South African capitalists are not the friends of South African workers.

Further, the ANC’s GEAR policy promotes free trade, so there is no prospect of the wave of imports subsiding in meaningful terms. COSATU is left with making futile appeals to the morals and patriotism of the South African ruling class - appeals that will achieve nothing. South African capitalists are developing a pact with Chinese capitalists: if these rivals can unite, why can’t the working class learn the lesson, and defend Chinese labour?
THE “CORE OF ENTERPRISES”
As we have noted in these pages before, both GEAR and NEPAD aim at attracting more trade and more foreign investment, and China fits both bills. Meanwhile, Intelligence Minister (and ageing Young Communist League politburo member) Ronnie Kasrils enthused in a glossy book China Through the Third Eye: South African Perspectives - funded by the China Chamber of Commerce and Industry in SA - that China’s building boom, including the controversial Three Dams project on the Yangtze that will displace 1-million people, “is a construction engineers’ dream”. This is a good thing, it seems: “If China is to remain a sustainable economy, it has to speed the transition from a rural to an urban society, from an agricultural to an industrial economy.”

Chief state spin-doctor Joel Netshitenzhe claimed in the same book that “South Africa and China share mutual goals as both countries are committed to ensuring a better life for all their citizens. Both aim to lower the levels of poverty.” Given the state-enforced poverty of the Chinese people, one wonders what Netshitenzhe has in mind when he praised the role of the Chinese state propaganda machine for “the rigour and focus with which China uses information to mobilise people around common objectives and a shared vision…”

A chill settles in one’s bones when one reads him hailing the “diversity of voices” in the Chinese media, while studiously ignoring state censorship and the complicity of Western search engines such as Yahoo in helping China jail political dissidents.

The view of SACP deputy secretary general and one-man think-tank Jeremy Cronin is even more revealing. The SACP, terrified that the bubble of “real, existing socialism” was washing down the drain with the restructuring of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in China, sent a delegation there in 2001 to check things out.

Cronin and his delegation were clearly wowed by their CCP hosts: he quotes a 1999 central committee document that “The public-ownership economy, which includes the State-owned economy, is the economic basis of China’s socialist system… China must always rely on and bring into full play the important role of the SOEs to develop the productive forces of the socialist society and realise the country’s industrialisation and modernisation…” China, it seems, is socialist as well as capitalist! What are we to make of such confused thinking?

“To manage SOEs well in general, efforts must be made to establish a leadership system and organisational and managerial systems in them that conform to the law of the market economy and China’s actual situation, to strengthen the building of their leadership, to give play to the Party organisations as the political core of enterprises, and to adhere to the principle of relying on the working class wholeheartedly…” And “rely” they do, for China’s miracle is built “wholeheartedly” on exploitation and terror!
A CHANGING OF THE GUARD?
So, Chinese communism is finally revealed as nothing more than a modernisation programme guided by authoritarian marketing and management gurus who double as Party bosses! And the Party itself is revealed as a clique of commissars that rides on the working class!

Cronin admits that the delegation “did not have sufficient time to gauge the degree to which” the central committee’s stated commitment to workers’ “democratic decision-making” and “status as masters of their own enterprises” - capitalist enterprises steered by the party - but he thought it significant that these cheap words had been put on paper.

Cronin lauds the regime for the “fairly clear socialist agenda [that] shines through…” “There is no reason,” he huffs, “why markets should not exist under socialism” - a liberal interpretation that allows for the coexistence of “the emergent small and medium privately owned service sector”. Where exactly “socialism” “shines” is not clear.

From such mixed economic thinking arises a confused politics, based on industrial and market requirements rather than people’s needs, where in Cronin’s view, wage increases in the public sector, adopted purely to stimulate market demand qualify as “socialist”.

So what we have is an ANC/SACP government that is not only increasingly trading with, but ideologically inclining itself towards, the world’s last large totalitarian state, a state that is so blatantly capitalist and simultaneously anti-labour that Cronin’s skill as a poet fails to gild the brutal reality. The SACP’s state-capitalist thinking has finally manage to find, in the Chinese example, a happy marriage with neo-liberalism.
PROTECTIONISM OR CLASS STRUGGLE
Chinese goods are cheap because Chinese labour is cheap. If COSATU wants to protect local jobs - and show its commitment to the international working class struggle - it should support trade union organising in China, and step up the class struggle at home and in southern Africa. Neo-liberal capitalism thrives on pitting cheap labour in one country against even chepaer labour in another, in a race to the bottom. The only way out is international solidarity and class struggle, starting with a struggle for an international minimum wage and universal union rights.

China has a proud tradition of class struggle - and this does not mean the CCP and Mao! Back in 1913, anarcho-syndicalists built the first trade unions in Canton, rising to challenge reformist and communist unionism in all the big industrial centres such as Shanghai in the 1920s. Armed anarchist peasant movements controlled huge swathes of territory in Fukien province and in Kirin province, Manchuria, in the 1930s and anarchist guerrillas fought alongside communists in the resistance to Japanese imperialism in the 1940s.

But after the Maoist coup d’état of 1949, China’s estimated 10,000 anarchist trade unionist militants were driven underground and Makhnovist-styled guerrillas such as Chu Cha Pei were forced to retreat into the hills in Yunnan province from where they continued to harry the new ruling class headed by Mao and his entourage of warlords and state-capitalists.

As Africa increasingly becomes the back-yard of China’s oil-driven imperialism, one has to ask firstly, whether the government will try to mimic the worst aspects of China’s enforced civil peace, a development that would prove a serious challenge to our own working class.
ANARCHISM OR MARXISM?
We have no interest on following those leftists who hope for an end to “capitalist restoration” in China: China has been capitalist since Mao took power, and any Chinese revolutionary movement must jettison Marxism and its Maoist variant. Nor can we agree that China is - in fact - “socialist,” despite what SACP leaders may think.

Capitalism is a class system, and a class system means class struggles. Sooner or later China’s working class will rediscover its proud fighting tradition and take charge of its own affairs to the exclusion of parasitic Party leaders and capitalists - what is called in Chinese wuzhengfgu gonchan, or common production without government, in a word, anarchist-communism - and bury the CCP.

But until that day, there is a more serious question we have to ask, one with implications beyond our borders: will China replace Britain as South Africa’s imperialist power, a changing of the guard, so to speak - leading to South Africa embarking on military expeditions in Africa to protect Chinese capitalist interests. All serious anti-imperialists must consider and plan for the possibility of Africa becoming the future battle-ground between US-backed Western and Chinese expansionist interests, and unite the continent’s people in a battle against the oil barons.

Mbeki satisfied at outcome of Masetlha case

2006-12-23T11:49:00.000-08:00

President Thabo Mbeki is "satisfied" that the Pretoria High Court turned down an application to reinstate former National Intelligence Agency (NIA) director-general Billy Masetlha, his office said on Tuesday.

As always, the president accepted the outcome of the judiciary, but was satisfied with the outcome of this particular case, said presidential spokesperson Mukoni Ratshitanga.

In a judgment he took just minutes to hand down, Judge Ben du Plessis ruled that a breakdown of trust was a lawful reason for Mbeki's suspension and sacking of Masetlha.

Masetlha was suspended in October last year and dismissed in March this year.

"(The) relationship of trust between me, as Head of State and the national executive and you as head of the National Intelligence Agency has broken down irreparably," Mbeki wrote after changing Masetlha's terms of office and in effect firing him 21-months before his contract ended.

A day after his dismissal, Masetlha was implicated in a hoax email saga in which fabricated communication interceptions made out that senior African National Congress (ANC) members were involved in a conspiracy against the party's deputy president Jacob
Zuma and secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe.

"It is self evident that mutual trust must exist between the president and the heads of intelligence services. The breakdown constitutes a lawful basis for the president to have dismissed the applicant," Du Plessis found.

Mbeki had to work closely and heavily rely on officials such as intelligence heads in making important decisions affecting the country's security.

It was in the interest of the president and the public to trust the head of the NIA, he found.

Masetlha had asked the court to overturn his dismissal with a finding that it was unlawful and invalid, but Du Plessis dismissed his application with costs on Tuesday.

Accompanied to court by several bodyguards, Masetlha refused to comment on the outcome. He wanted to first study the judgment, he said.

Mbeki has appointed Manala Manzini to a three-year term as director-general of the NIA.

Meanwhile, Masetlha has been charged - together with software salesman Muziwendoda Kunene and NIA electronic surveillance manager Funowakhe Madlala - with fraud involving R152 000 relating to the hoax emails.

The charge sheet alleges that they pretended to Mbeki, Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils and the NIA that several "controversial and damaging" documents were genuine, when they were actually fabrications.

The documents were allegedly produced by Kunene, whose R152 000 fee to intercept emails and other electronic communication for the NIA was apparently authorised and approved by Masetlha.

The preamble to the charge sheet alleges that Madladla and Masetlha failed tell the NIA or their superiors that the documents were fabricated even though it "must have been abundantly clear to them" they were not genuine.

They will appear in court again on February 9. Masetlha is out on bail of R10 000.

Masetlha says he was fired for knowing too much

2006-12-23T11:48:00.000-08:00

Billy Masetlha, the former spy boss, claims he was fired because of people who believed he was too powerful and knew too much. This emerged in the Hatfield Court in Tshwane, where Masetlha is on trial for withholding information from Zolile Ngcakani, the inspector-general of intelligence.

In court papers Masetlha said this was aggravated when Jacob Zuma, the ANC deputy president, was dismissed, and that the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) also found that a group - linked to the Scorpions - was one of several groups responsible for instigating unrest.

Masetlha claims they also wanted him removed from office, because they thought he knew too much. Masetlha linked Ronnie Kasrils, the intelligence minister, to the group. Masetlha also said he was sacked by President Thabo Mbeki because of an unlawful scheme by Kasrils to drive him out of office. Masetlha denies that he refused to cooperate with Ngcakani regarding the surveillance of Saki Macozoma, a businessman.

Ngcakani denied knowing of claims that Kasrils wanted to get rid of Masetlha, and said Masetlha had given a partial version of a complex situation, contained in hoax e mails. These were found to be an NIA fabrication.

The defence accused Ngcakani of functioning in contravention of the law that governs his office. Masetlha's lawyers say even if their client had acted as alleged in the charge sheet, it did not constitute an offence. Meanwhile, in another court case, Masetlha has been added as the third accused in the NIA's so-called hoax email trial. Masetlha faces a charge of fraud.

Ousted spy tries to get his job back

2006-11-26T09:18:00.000-08:00

Ousted spy boss Billy Masetlha has claimed in the Pretoria High Court that President Thabo Mbeki's "decision" to suspend him lacked legal power as the president merely "rubber-stamped" the decision taken by Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils.

Masetlha, who wants his job back, is asking Judge Ben du Plessis to review and set aside his suspension by Mbeki. He was the head of the National Intelligence Agency.

In the second leg of his application, Masetlha is asking that the decision by the president to reduce his term of office be declared void.

Counsel for the president contended that the suspension application was merely academic, but it was argued on behalf of Masetlha that the two applications went hand-in-hand.

Neil Tuchten SC said the president was asked to provide reasons for Masetlha's suspension, but despite an undertaking to do so, he had to this day not provided any reasons.

He said the applicant maintained that the President took no decision in October last year to suspend Masetlha. The decision was in fact taken by Kasrils, who lacked the legal power to take such a decision.

Tuchten said this would explain why the president was unable to provide a proper record on strength of which he had made his decision.

The advocate further argued that the president endeavoured to have the suspension application "go away". Mbeki had also "sweetened the pill to Masetlha" by paying from the public purse Masetlha's costs in the suspension application as well as a gratuity of R1 035 391 through Public Service Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi.

The court heard that Masetlha gave the money back and decided to fight his case in court instead.

Masetlha was told by Kasrils of his suspension while attending a meeting with the president. He was instructed by Mbeki not to enter the premises of NIA without his permission for the duration of his suspension.

Tuchten said it was at no stage during the meeting suggested to Masetlha that the decision to suspend him was taken by Mbeki. Counsel for the president, however, said it is clear that it was Mbeki's decision and not that of Kasrils.

The respondent argued that the relief the applicant sought was inappropriate because it amounted to an order of reinstatement in circumstances where the relationship between the parties was such that reinstatement was impossible.

But Tuchten said this was not an application regarding unfair dismissal but to declare certain conduct void. Masetlha's suspension and dismissal followed an investigation by the Intelligence Inspector-General into a hoax email saga.

The case continues.

Jewish weekly slaps ban on Kasrils

2006-11-15T01:37:00.000-08:00

South African Minister of Intelligence, Ronnie Kasrils has been refused a right of reply to criticism of his anti-Israel stance by a local Jewish paper.

In defence of its decision to slap a ban on Kasrils’ response to an attack on his well known position of solidarity with Palestinian victims of Israeli policies, the Jewish Report editorial claims that “some of his statements were so offensive to the sensibilities of the majority of our readers that they would not contribute to constructive debate, but would simply give deep offence”.

The so-called “offensive” statements refer to “comparing Israel with the Nazis” and “other comments in that vein”, according to the editor.

Censorship of this type – reminiscent of apartheid era bannings – is in direct violation of South Africa’s constitutional protection of free speech and the hard-fought for media liberties, central to freedom of expression.

Paradoxically, the right to criticize and abuse a senior Cabinet Minister such as Kasrils in the columns of the Jewish Report seems perfectly acceptable, while his legitimate right of reply is denied.

Indeed, in an earlier column, [Jewish Report, October 20] Judge Dennis Davis questioned such inconsistencies when he lambasted those who prevented one of the most distinguished Jewish intellectuals in this country, Steven Friedman “from publishing a column in this newspaper….”

“Freedom of speech and adherence to listening to the other side are principles that cut both ways” is the view of Davis who went on to ask whether those who protested against the SABC decision not to use Paula Slier, would also defend Robert Fisk’s right to broadcast if he was similarly excluded?

Well, thus far indications are that Fisk has not been barred by the public broadcaster. But Kasrils’ opinions have been banned in the Jewish Report whose Board of directors includes Issie Kirsh, Stan Kaplan, Bertie Lubner and Marlene Bethlehem.

One wonders how this illustrious group, whose editorial committee is chaired by Judge Meyer Joffe, would respond to the earlier remarks by Davis regarding the SABC: “….to silence a voice is a disgraceful breach of standards of speech…..”

This latest controversy follows an op-ed by Anthony Posner titled “Some pertinent questions to Kasrils”, in which he challenged the Minister of Intelligence to respond to a number of questions.

However, despite an assurance by the editor of Jewish Report that Kasrils will be accorded an opportunity to have his response published in the form of an op-ed, he obviously got cold feet and refused to honour his undertaking.

Instead of allowing Kasrils to explain himself, the paper’s editorial sought to justify its decision to ban the Minister’s response by unfairly distorting it. It appears that silencing Kasrils was not enough. It was necessary to malign him as well. Implying that Kasrils is a “Holocaust denier” and therefore incapable of “rational debate”, is insulting and way off the mark.

The most outrageous charge leveled against Kasrils is that his response to Posner may constitute “hate speech”!

By withholding his text from the pages of the Jewish Report, the editor has unfairly abused his own column to smear Kasrils, thus lending undue credence to the vitriol associated with a flurry of angry anti-Kasrils letter writers.

This strange media practice not only belongs to the era of apartheid censorship; it also entrenches a perception that the Jewish Report’s espousal of press freedom is hollow and inconsistent.

The victimization of Kasrils, first by the Goethe Institute at the behest of the Jewish Board of Deputies and now by the Jewish Report, is a glaring reminder of the urgent need by journalists and media practitioners to assess their commitment to press freedom especially if the subject is Israel.

Spy versus spy

2006-11-03T06:47:00.000-08:00

It’s spy versus spy. Six of South Africa’s civilian intelligence organisations are under investigation for malpractice and abuse of state power and resources.

This emerged from the Ministerial Review Commission launched in Parliament by Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils.

They are the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), South African Secret Service, National Intelligence Co-ordinating Committee, National Communications Centre, Electronic Communication Security Centre and the Office of Interception.

Kasrils said the establishment of the commission was necessitated by malpractice which occurred within the NIA during 2005.

He said: “We have opted to use this lamentable episode at the NIA to undertake fundamental reforms aimed at preventing it in the future.

“To do this, we need to review the legislation and strengthen regulations, operational procedures and control measures.

“There is also a need to attend to the perfidious mentality that enabled dirty tricks to take place, and such reforms must be placed in the public domain so as to rebuild the public’s confidence and trust.

“The commission will strengthen mechanisms of control of the country’s civilian intelligence services, to ensure full compliance and alignment with the constitution, constitutional principles and rule of law, and minimise the potential for illegal conduct and abuse of power.”

Its focus will be on executive control, control mechanisms related to intelligence service operations, methods of investigation, political non-partisanship, balance between secrecy and transparency, and funding.

DA spokesman on intelligence advocate Paul Swart said: “We have been on record on the need to review intelligence structures, and are pleased that the focus of the commission will include control over methods of investigation and funding.”

The rebel without a game plan

2006-10-16T01:57:00.000-07:00

Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils called his autobiography, Armed and Dangerous. But, looking at his life, it is not always clear: dangerous to whom?

Like Don Quixote, Kasrils is a likeable, honourable and even chivalrous fellow.

But, like Quixote, he is a great romantic and sometimes his revolutionary romanticism leads him to tilt at windmills instead of giants.

The obvious example was on September 7, 1992 when he participated in an ANC march against the government of an "independent" Ciskei.

The marchers mostly stuck to an agreement to march only as far as the sports stadium just outside Ciskei's capital, Bisho.

But Kasrils spotted a hole in the fence around the stadium and led a breakaway group in a charge through the gap towards the Ciskei government buildings.

Nervous Ciskei guards opened fire, killing 28 demonstrators and injuring about 200.

The whole exercise was futile. Negotiations had been under way for some 30 months and the "independent" homelands were bound to disappear eventually.

But, as then-President FW de Klerk says in his autobiography, the ANC radicals were attempting a last-gasp "Leipzig option" at Bisho.

And Kasrils seemed to be pursuing his own more Quixotic revolutionary strategy.

Maybe this was the revolutionary charge he had always dreamed of in exile and no damned peaceful negotiations were going to snatch it away from him. Now Kasrils seems to be pursuing a similarly idiosyncratic strategy on the Middle East.

The ANC government supports a negotiated two-state solution to the conflict to create independent Israel and Palestine states living peacefully side by side.

Kasrils, though, prefers the one-state option, with Israel forgoing its current status as a Jewish-majority state by submitting to a Palestinian majority.

It's a perfectly respectable position to hold, of course, and in many ways more logical than a two-state solution.

But it is also eminently impractical given the regional sentiments. And, more to the point, it's not the official line, either internationally or in South Africa.

But as Bisho demonstrated, Kasrils does not care too much for the official line and is always looking for a hole in it to charge through, his splintered lance to the fore.

The other day he wrote an article in the Mail and Guardian in which he suggested that Israel should no longer be recognised, called the state "baby killers'' and added that "those using methods reminiscent of the Nazis (should) be told that they are behaving like Nazis".

Kasrils purported to be writing and speaking in his personal capacity. But a cabinet minister simply cannot speak in his personal capacity on a policy matter of such importance.

He is confusing the government's message on the Middle East, and, as this week's events suggested, hindering relations not only with Israel, but possibly with another important country, Germany.

If the South African government still cherishes an ambition to play some sort of mediation role in the Middle East - or even if it doesn't- it should start speaking with one, unambiguous voice on the subject.

Kasrils's Nazi comment costs him

2006-10-12T08:06:00.000-07:00

The Goethe Institute, cultural arm of the German government, cancelled a speech on its premises by Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils after he had likened Israel to the Nazis.

Kasrils had to move to another venue at the last minute to deliver the speech in a seminar organised by the Ceasefire Campaign, the Centre for Policy Studies, (CPS) the South African Liaison Office, the Action Support Centre and the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR).

The Goethe Institute objected to wording in the invitation which these organisations sent out to the seminar on the subject: Israel and Lebanon; Unpacking the source of the Middle East conflict.

The invitation quoted from a recent article by Kasrils published in the Mail & Guardian, in which he said about the recent Israeli assault on Lebanon that, "we must call baby killers, 'baby killers', and declare that those using methods reminiscent of the Nazis be told that they are behaving like Nazis".

The South African Jewish Board of Deputies complained to the Goethe Institute about these remarks of Kasrils being included in the invitation, the board's head of communications, Charisse Zeifert said.

She said that the Goethe Institute's head of programmes, Nikolai Petersen, told her that the institute had "harshly" criticised the seminar invitation and had been told by the organisers that they would not send it out.

But Petersen told Zeifert that the organisers did send out the invitation out after all, and because of this "deception", the Goethe Institute had cancelled the use of its premises.

Mobilise the civil society

2006-10-11T04:02:00.000-07:00

South African Minister of Intelligence Services, Ronnie Kasrils castigated as flimsy the reason put foward by Israel that it attacked Lebanon as a way of seeking release for captured Israeli soldiers. "The attack on Lebanon shattered everybody and we all kow that Lebanon is exactly half the size of Israel,"said Minister Kasrils. He descibed the Israeli moves in the middle East as a conquest to supplant people who were not the rightful owners of the land to which they were now claiming a right. "What is happening is atrocious and there is need to mobilise the civil society in South Africa to help in resolving the Middle East crisis," said the Minister.

Deliver or else

2006-10-09T12:24:00.000-07:00

Axed intelligence chief Billy Masetlha has warned the government to deliver on the ground or risk "a rising" of the masses.

Masetlha was speaking at an event in Polokwane to celebrate the ANC Youth League's 62nd anniversary in Limpopo.

Masetlha had warned that if delivery on the ground was not fast tracked, the so-far patient masses "would rise up against the ANC leadership" and boot them out of office.

Masetlha also warned government against a Zimbabwe style land grab. He reportedly accused the state of selling land to foreigners who turned it into game farms.

"If you put yourself in a situation of capitalist accumulation, you end up in a situation where the best buyer gets the best land," Masetlha said. "How much of this land do South Africans own? The state must hold in custody this land on behalf of the people."

He also warned that the country was in danger of being prescribed to by the private security industry and foreign capital and governments on how it should be run.

Masetlha, who has taken his fight to have his suspension overturned to a bitter court battle with his former boss Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils and President Thabo Mbeki, was speaking in his capacity as an ANCYL veteran.

His suspension followed the exposure of hoax emails in the National Intelligence Agency, which an independent inquiry found had been manufactured under his leadership.

The inquiry found they had been created to smear those against ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma's succession plans. The issue was understood to be up for discussion at a meeting of the ANC's national executive committee this weekend in Gauteng.

The former director general spoke about "government being committed to its delivery to the masses", but while examining the period between 1994 and the present asked "whether we took correct policy positions or whether we were misled by the sunset clause".

He spoke about (the lack of) free education and healthcare and about members of parliament and politicians who should use government facilities and not private care.

He said that "if we do not deliver in a short space of time, these people will rise up and remove the ANC government."

Masethla also reportedly said efforts to curb the security companies' powers through tougher legislation had resulted in the companies telling the government that it should rather increase its own arsenal and capacity.

Terrorism not a threat to SA

2006-10-07T03:48:00.000-07:00

Poverty and under-development are the biggest threats to South Africa and other developing countries and not the threat of terrorism currently facing the developed world, according to Imtiaz Fazel from the office of the inspector-general of Intelligence.

Fazel said the main challenge facing local and continental intelligence agencies was the effects of rampant poverty and underdevelopment.

Threats could come from a "disillusioned populace" as opposed to the threat of terrorism facing the developed world.

Fazel said the South African intelligence services have taken heed of the problem of independence and non partisanship.

He said Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils was leading the charge to achieve political non-partisanship through a civic education programme to "instill professionalism" in the intelligence service.

He added that there was a lot to learn.

Learn facts about Jewish state

2006-10-06T11:05:00.000-07:00

RONNIE KASRILS says young Jewish people should not just listen to their parents’ stories about Israel.

The Minister of Intelligence, who said he was proud of his Jewish origin but considers himself an atheist, said young Jews should learn the history and facts about what really happened in the Jewish state.

He said the wall built recently by Israel to cut off the Gaza strip was worse than the Berlin Wall because it was three times as high and it was longer (160km).

Kasrils, who was the guest the Wits Palestinian Solidarity Committee, spoke to Wits students.

During question time there was a walkout by part of the audience following an exchange of words between a questioner and Kasrils.

"The fundamental cause of disruption in [Israel] is the dispossession of the people of their land. The Zionist movement is responsible for the hatred and the problem.

"It is important to find justice for people, which I think is the reason for living. Israel, in order to deal with the bridegroom situation, has tried to adopt the bride and has survived by becoming a functionary and client state, supported by the US," said Kasrils.

"Terrible crimes have been committed in the names of Jews and Judaism," said Kasrils.

He said Jews were distorting the Holocaust for their own gains today.

In reaction to a question, Kasrils said: "The Palestinian/Israeli issue is at a breaking stage and the only way in which we can assist is with our support for justice, the kind that South Africa received during the apartheid era."

Oxymorons in action

2006-10-05T02:49:00.000-07:00

Solidarity movements should put pressure on governments worldwide to impose sanctions on Israel, the way they did with South Africa, to ensure that country liberates itself from racial paradigms, Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils said.

He told students at the University of the Witwatersrand the situation in the Holy Land was similar to that in South Africa during the apartheid era. He said it could be resolved through boycott and isolation as foreign governments had done successfully with apartheid South Africa.

Kasrils, a former Wits student and founder of the Not In My Name South African Jewish solidarity group, was speaking at a rally and the launch of the Wits Palestine Solidarity Committee (WPSC). He said: “South Africans have seen it all – from what can be achieved through violence towards a democratic nation to how crucial negotiations are to bring about democracy and justice for all."

“As far as Palestine is concerned, South Africans should stand for a solution that guarantees peace for the people of Palestine without prescribing whether or not they adopt a proposal by the Zionists that the country be an exclusively Jewish state.”

Muslims, Christians and other religions in that country want it to accommodate all religions and races, a view supported by the WPSC. Members said that they wanted the “apartheid-riddled holy land” to be like South Africa and accommodate all its citizens “regardless of religion, race, gender and sexual orientation”.

Academic, consumer and cultural boycotts of Israeli institutions, organisations and products were proposed at the rally. Kasrils, a South African of Jewish Lithuanian descent, added that South Africans could assist through acts of solidarity. He hoped this would assist to bring about peace in that country as it had done in South Africa.

The latest on Spygate

2006-09-26T02:30:00.000-07:00

Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils hit out sharply at his former director-general, Billy Masetlha, in Parliament. Kasrils made his scathing comments during a debate over a report on a probe into Spygate - the hoax e-mail and surveillance scandal that saw heads roll in the National Intelligence Agency, is now set to play out in several court cases and is widely held to be linked to the ANC succession tussle.

The nub of the spy scandal is that top business people, politicians and officials were allegedly targeted in a misdirected NIA operation codenamed Operation Avani, begun on the basis of a series of strange e-mails thought to be hoaxes. The whistle was blown when ANC businessman Saki Macozoma complained to Kasrils about a botched surveillance operation conducted against him. Three of NIA's top officials faced the chop and the Inspector General Zolile Ngcakani began investigations.

Ngcakani found the e-mails were a hoax and that there was a rogue investigation involving the illegal interception of the communications.

The report found a secret NIA project launched by Masetlha posed "the risk of undermining constitutionally protected party political freedoms and of descending into the abyss of abuse of state resources".

Kasrils said of the the conduct of his former director-general: "The blatant disregard by the former DG and certain NIA members for the constitution and the rights of those violated by their conduct needs to be strongly condemned."

The minister said his former DG had refused to co-operate with the Ngcakani and had concealed his involvement in the e-mail saga. "However one chooses to frame the events of the past year, it is clear that members of NIA instructed by the former DG broke the law and undermined the constitution." Kasrils said Ngcakani's finding that Masetlha deliberately misled and lied to both himself (Kasrils) and the IG about the surveillance of Macozoma was "shocking".

I deny everything

2006-09-23T08:11:00.000-07:00

Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils flatly rejected suggestions by Parliament’s intelligence committee that he had acted incorrectly in launching the investigation into illegal surveillance and hoax e-mails by the then head of the National Intelligence Agency, Billy Masetlha.

The report of the joint standing committee on intelligence hit the headlines last month when it appeared to take issue with Kasrils on his acceptance of the report of intelligence inspector-general Zolile Ngcakani. It called for the investigation of the hoax e-mails to be continued and strongly criticised parts of Ngcakani’s findings.

An indication of ongoing differences on the issue is that the National Assembly did not adopt the report but simply noted it. This means that it has not been taken into ownership by Parliament despite a host of ANC MPs saying that divisions over the report were a creation of the media.

Kasrils began gently enough by commending the committee for the hard work it had put into its review of Ngcakani’s findings. He insisted that the committee had not rejected Ngcakani’s findings and that its criticisms were about procedure and not substance.

Kasrils rejected the committee’s view that the complaint of illegal surveillance of ANC businessman Saki Macozoma was incorrectly referred to Ngcakani.

He said the law gave him powers to refer complaints and pointed out that Macozoma had made the complaint to him as the minister. In consultation with President Thabo Mbeki, as required by the law, he had referred the complaint to the office of the inspector-general.

“As minister, I am charged with overall accountability for the functioning of the civilian intelligence structures and I am obliged at all times to act in the public interest. By referring the matter to the inspector-general, I acted in the public interest and within my constitutional responsibilities,” he said.

Kasrils also took aim at the finding by the committee that he had erred in the way the senior official was suspended. The committee argued that this omission on the part of the minister resulted in “members resorting to court applications to enforce their rights”.

Kasrils also took issue with the committee’s finding that Ngcakani had “declassified” his report without following correct procedures. “The inspector-general’s report has not been declassified and the full report has not been publicly released,” he said.

Meanwhile, the state last week moved to charge the former spy boss Masetlha under the Intelligence Services Oversight Act. Masetlha, who is challenging his suspension in a separate civil case following his dismissal by Mbeki, was served with a criminal summons at the Brooklyn police station in Pretoria and is due to appear in court next month.

We are above the law

2006-09-22T04:42:00.000-07:00

The South African regime's minister of Intelligence is trying to teach his henchmen a few basics about human rights and the rule of law.

Steps are being taken to instil an appreciation of the law and the importance of human rights in intelligence gathering, Minister of Intelligence Ronnie Kasrils said on Thursday.

"However one chooses to frame the events of the past year, it is clear that members of NIA [National Intelligence Agency], instructed by the former DG [former director general Billy Masetlha], broke the law and undermined the Constitution," he told MPs in the National Assembly.

Kasrils said the recent finding by the inspector general of intelligence [IG] that Masetlha deliberately misled and lied to both himself [Kasrils] and the IG about the nature of the surveillance of businessman Saki Macozoma was shocking. The former DG refused to cooperate with the IG and concealed his involvement in the [hoax] e-mail scam.

Parliament's joint standing committee on intelligence (JSCI) was concerned that some members of the intelligence services were afraid to disobey what they considered to be unlawful instructions from their immediate managers for fear of intimidation.

The regime want to get back into the nuclear club

2006-09-19T04:15:00.000-07:00

The regime is thinking about restarting the apartheid nuclear weapons programme. Stand well back while they work!

A prominent university professor was recently invited to give a presentation to the South African intelligence community, which included the suggestion of restarting the country's nuclear weapons programme. The dean of research at the University of the Western Cape, Professor Renfrew Christie, was invited to give the controversial talk by Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils.

During the presentation, Christie warned of possible future wars in Africa, and suggested that that South Africa needed to quickly be able to revert to a nuclear weapons state if it became vital to the country's interests.

The professor noted that South Africa still retained a stockpile of weapons grade highly enriched uranium derived from the country's former nuclear weapons programme. He also reminded everyone that technical knowledge of South Africa's former atomic bombs was still contained on CD's held by the current government.

The presentation was greeted with loud applause from the intelligence community. Critics are concerned that such thinking is likely to spread to policy makers, and warned of the possible consequences for Africa.

Sources in government are concerned that the South African government has been ploughing billions of rands into the controversial Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) despite a report by Price Waterhouse Coopers suggesting that the project was financially risky, and warned that there may be other motives behind the project.

According to Mashile Phalane from the environmental watchdog Earthlife Africa, South Africa is falling into the same trap as the apartheid government by wanting to enrich uranium.

The minister in his own words

2006-09-12T14:35:00.000-07:00

Yehia Ghanem in Johannesburg interviews Ronnie Kasrils, South Africa's Minister of Water Affairs, on the latest row over his biting criticism of Israel's oppression of the Palestinians

Ronnie Kasrils, South Africa's Minister of Water Affairs, is Jewish. But he is an outspoken critic of atrocities committed against the Palestinian people by Israeli forces. Recently, Kasrils issued a "Declaration of Conscience" with a number of Jewish South African intellectuals condemning Israel's repressive treatment of the Palestinians and calling for the Palestinians to be given their own independent state. The Declaration of Conscience drew fierce criticism from Zionist organisations in South Africa, who accused Kasrils of anti-Semitism. Kasrils, a veteran of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, remains unruffled.

Did you expect the current backlash over the Declaration of Conscience?

I did. But I was hoping that the attacks would not get personal or develop into a hate campaign of the type seen now. Such campaigns are not surprising, though. The main figure in the offensive is the South African chief rabbi, a man known for his antiquated views and profound bitterness.

It has become an article of faith to resist any criticism of Israel. So, I was not surprised to see the South African Jewish Parliamentary Council call me anti-Semitic or seek to isolate me from the South African Jewish community.

Why did you issue the Declaration of Conscience?

I am insulted by what Israel is doing to the Palestinians. My conscience is heavy and hurt by Israel's policy toward the Palestinian people. I want to make it clear that Israel is not speaking in the name of the world Jewry. I do not support Israel's policy. I fully support the cause of the Palestinians and their right to self-determination.

Do you believe the Jews and Arabs should live together in a single secular state?

As a communist, I am appalled that Israel, a Jewish state, restricts the right of return to Jews. When we were fighting against apartheid rule in South Africa, we rejected the idea of a divided homeland. Because of this, I dream of a secular state embracing all religions, and even the disbelievers.

But it is hard to change the status quo in Palestine for the time being. Israel should accept the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. Later on, cooperation between the two entities may develop to the point where a federal state is a possibility.

Israel's Prime Minister Sharon has called repeatedly on South African Jews to immigrate to Israel.

There are 85,000 Jews in South Africa. The South African government and people feel insulted by Sharon's calls on South African Jews to immigrate to Israel and his hints that they are not safe.

You may notice that Sharon made similar calls on French Jews because of France's recurring opposition to Israel's policy. Sharon never calls on Jews of the United Kingdom or the United States to immigrate to Israel, for he is confident of the support these two countries give to Israel.

It would have been a better policy for Sharon to encourage the Jews to stay in South Africa, don't you think?

Look at Sharon's history and you would realise that he is ignorant and does not understand politics. Since the 1950s, all Sharon could think of was killing and harassing the Arabs and especially Palestinians, so as to drive them away from their homes and replace them with Jewish immigrants. There has been no change in his Zionist tactics.

I have to say this to South African Jews who are thinking about immigrating to Israel: Do you really want to leave South Africa to go to the most dangerous place on earth?

So much anti-Semitism from a Jew

2006-09-12T14:27:00.000-07:00

The minister of Intelligence (hows that for an oxymoron) is actually Jewish by birth. ANother oxymoron - an anti-Semitic Jew!

When he first began speaking out against Israel in 2001, Ronnie Kasrils insisted he was not equating Israelis with Nazis: “I am not making that comparison,” he told Parliament on 23 October 2001. Today Kasrils indulges such analogies brazenly: “Now Jews, too, have behaved like Nazis,” he crowed last week (“Rage of the elephant”, September 1).

That he does so is not a measure of change in Israeli policies, but rather a sign of how extreme the minister’s views have become as he has abandoned all pretence at moderation.

Kasrils is right to invoke the Nazi era; however, he has got the labels the wrong way round. Like Hitler’s Germany, Iran is bent on regional domination at any cost, and is imprisoned by an official ideology of anti-Semitic hatred. (The very name “Iran” means “Aryan” and was bestowed on the country in 1935 by Reza Shah Pahlavi, an ardent admirer of Hitler and his racial theories.)

Today, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is determined to pick up where Hitler left off. Not only does he wish to destroy Israel, he also yearns for the collapse of what he calls “liberalism and Western-style democracy”.

Israel is playing the role of Czechoslovakia, circa 1938: a lone, vulnerable democracy encircled by hostile, totalitarian powers. Like Czechoslovakia, Israel is at risk of being abandoned by fellow democracies, such as South Africa, for short-sighted reasons.

Lately, South Africa has become the chief apologist for Iran in the democratic world. During the war, Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad attempted to deny the fact that Iran has been funding and supplying Hizbullah. Worse, our government has tried to shield Iran’s nuclear programme from action by the International Atomic Energy Agency and the United Nations Security Council.

The minister’s contribution is to paint “the axis of Hizbullah, Hamas, Syria and Iran” as benign forces, merely seeking to restore a regional balance of power.

These are the primary sources of violent instability in the Middle East today, which have long sponsored terror in the region and across the globe. In Africa, for example, Hizbullah has been blamed for fuelling bloody civil wars in Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Kasrils, predictably, condemns Israel’s response to Hizbullah. We should not, however, indulge the self-righteousness of a man whose human rights record is indelibly stained by association with Quatro and the Bisho massacre.

Last year Kasrils signed an intelligence and defence pact with Zimbabwe in the wake of Operation Murambatsvina, which saw about 700 000 Zimbabweans forcibly removed from their homes by their own government. That is roughly the same number of Palestinians who became refugees during the 1948 war, but Kasrils has nothing to say about the tragedy on South Africa’s doorstep.

And while Kasrils professes sympathy for the displaced Palestinians, he fails to mention that Lebanon imprisons these refugees and their descendants in apartheid-style separation from the rest of Lebanese society.

Instead, Kasrils offers yet another version of his crackpot history of the Middle East, cut and pasted from unnamed sources and filled with crude misinformation. He misrepresents facts and quotes only the most marginal, controversial sources to support his claims.

It is ridiculous to argue, as Kasrils does, that Israel fought in Lebanon to achieve “Zionist annexation plans”, or that Israel’s leaders deliberately exposed their citizens to terror as “part of their cynical calculations”. These are the rantings of a conspiracy theorist, not someone who wants his views to be taken seriously.

Evidently, there is no act of self-defence by Israel that Kasrils would ever consider legitimate. That is tantamount to claiming that Israel has no right to exist -- and Kasrils quotes with approval a Norwegian writer who recently made that suggestion.

The real concern, however, is that he refuses to acknowledge the threat posed by the Iranian “axis” to the region and the world. In most other democracies, such wilful ignorance would be grounds for his dismissal as intelligence minister.

Oddly enough, for all his blustering, Kasrils dutifully carries out his role in the murkier manoeuvrings of the “war on terror”, such as the deportation of Khalid Rashid. Perhaps that is why Kasrils has become so vehement in his denunciations of Israel and the United States. Maybe he wants to compensate for the Rashid affair, which has alienated many of his former supporters.

Perhaps the minister’s real reckoning is not with Israel, but with his own confused conscience.

No privacy? That's too bad

2006-09-08T06:52:00.000-07:00

Big Brother is watching you, using technology that BOSS (Bureau of State Security) from the bad old days of aprtheid could only dream about. Screw the constitutional rights, we have work to do.

‘The privacy you’re concerned about is largely an illusion. All you have to give up is your illusions, not any of your privacy.”

That wasn’t Vodacom boss Alan Knott-Craig comforting his customers about the new kit he will shortly be installing on his network to help government snoops listen in on cellphone calls. Nor was it Phuthuma Nhleko of MTN explaining how his company will store records of SMS traffic in anticipation of requests to provide it to the police.

It wasn’t even intelligence czar Barry Gilder, whose down-home style promotes a sense of near-tranquillity about such things, protesting that the sophisticated data interception tools given to authorities by the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Amendment Bill are no cause for concern.

It was Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, explaining in September 2001 why concerns about civil liberties should be no obstacle to his proposal that all Americans be required to carry ID cards.

Oracle, of course, builds the powerful database software that makes it possible for credit card companies to profile you down to your choice of underwear. Ellison did not go quite so far as to suggest that privacy is a bourgeois conceit held over from the 20th century.

Scott McNeally was thinking along similar lines when he dismissed the idea that a new kind of freedom was to be found in the anonymity of the Internet. “You have no privacy,” he famously said. “Get over it.” McNeally should know. He builds the Sun computers that run the massive databases etching your passage through the supermarket, hospital or border post in bright digital permanence.

Like these Silicon Valley titans, although for different reasons, it would seem that most South Africans aren’t too bothered about privacy. Perhaps it has something to do with growing up in a police state, but we seem to expect and accept surveillance. Security cameras blanketing our cities? We would like some more of them, please. And Hanis, the giant software system that a succession of home affairs directors general have attempted to pilot to completion? Most people don’t even know it exists, let alone what power it puts in the hands of the state.

Indeed, very few people seem to have asked whether home affairs consistently fails at service delivery because its leadership is dominated by people from the “intelligence community” who are more interested in gathering information than in making the system work for citizens.

The minister, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, has an African National Congress intelligence background, Gilder has moved back and forth between intelligence jobs and the department with no apparent difficulty, and before him there was Billy Masetlha.

So it not surprising that the only real fuss about the Bill is who is going to pay for it. Not surprising perhaps, but worrying. Among its provisions, the Bill will require network operators to install mechanisms for spies and police investigators, armed with permission from a judge, to tap straight into cellphone lines and e-mail accounts. The need for permission from a judge is supposed to prevent the privacy of law-abiding citizens from being invaded.

To be sure, Minister of Intelligence Ronnie Kasrils is saying soothing things about checks and balances, but no one has been arrested for the surveillance of politicians, journalists and business people conducted by Masetlha and Co in an apparent attempt to advance Jacob Zuma’s cause. And private investigators, with their deep links to the police and military, are already able to gain access to an extraordinary range of information from banks and telephone companies.

Yet Parliament is being asked to make surveillance dramatically easier. MPs should ask to be convinced that the existing safeguards work before they do anything of the sort. Perhaps they should refer to that other 20th-century relic -- the Constitution, in particular the Bill of Rights -- which states “Everyone has the right to privacy, which includes the right not to have … the privacy of their communications infringed.”

Dirty laundry

2006-09-08T06:38:00.000-07:00

The inner workings of the South African intelligence services are coming out in court. They appointed a guy to supply evidence. Unable to find any, he fabricated it himself in order to collect his fees.

The dismissed technical head of the national intelligence agency (NIA), Funi Madlala, apparently never doubted the authenticity of hoax e-mails that implicated senior African National Congress members.

Madlala, 48, who appeared in Pretoria's specialised commercial crimes court on charges of fraud, was so convinced that the e-mails were legitimate, that he distributed them within the NIA. This emerged on Monday from the charge sheet against Madlala and Muzi Kunene, an IT specialist employed by the NIA, who is suspected of fabricating the e-mails.

Madlala was dismissed by Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils for his alleged role in the continuing e-mail saga, that also has ended the career of former NIA director-general Billy Masetlha.

The charge sheet concerning Kunene said he was contracted by the NIA for R152 000 to intercept e-mails as part of a legitimate operation. He apparently was given money to buy a laptop computer as well as a 3G card and 3G subscription for wireless data transfer.

The police's forensic investigation, meanwhile, apparently established that Kunene didn't intercept e-mails, but manufactured them. It was alleged on the charge sheet that he gave them to Madlala, who apparently distributed them within the NIA.

The inspector-general of intelligence found earlier in his investigation into the source of the e-mails that the documents were used as motivation for the NIA to spy illegally on businessman Saki Macozoma, politicians and influential civil servants.

2006-09-05T14:08:00.000-07:00

Ronnie Kasrils
Minister of Intelligence
Grade: A- (pending outcome of tough end-of-year exam) (2004 B)

Kasrils's final mark may be moved up or down depending on the outcome of his most stringent test yet: the fallout from his suspension of National Intelligence Agency (NIA) Director General Billy Masetlha and other top NIA officials.

If it is shown that the minister has acted correctly to protect the agency's integrity, in the face of attempts to abuse it for factional political ends, he will deserve at least an A-. If it emerges that he engaged in partisan conduct, he could lose marks or even fail.

Kasrils insists his action was not political, but until the whole affair is ventilated publicly, his assurances will carry limited weight.

Part of the problem is structural, given that the NIA has a broad political and economic intelligence mandate that provides ample space to delve into the ANC's succession battles as well as the wheeling and dealing around BEE.

In this regard, we welcome Kasrils's decision to initiate a review of intelligence legislation, regulations and operating procedures with a view to ensuring that there are no gaps or ambiguities that could lead to abuse by the intelligence services.

To be welcomed, too, is the minister's emphasis on developing a culture of professionalism and his introduction of Five Principles of Professionalism for Intelligence Officers - which stress the importance of adhering to legality and constitutionality - as well as other steps to ensure greater accountability from those whose actions are cloaked in secrecy.

In particular, the establishment of an archive on intelligence is a vital long-term tool of accountability. In the ministry's own words: "Every action taken by the services will now be preserved and provide a potent guarantee and paper trail against unlawful actions."

It remains to be seen, however, under what terms legal access will be granted to such material, if at all. As the Hefer commission demonstrated, when push comes to shove, the secrecy shutters come down.

But, on the whole, Kasrils must get credit for reining in the organisation, both in terms of its activities and its budget. He has forced his managers to curb spending on personnel, which was crowding out operational budgets. He has cut back several grandiose plans, including a proposal of a tertiary-level intelligence academy and a massive vetting directorate, in favour of more modest, practical proposals.

Yet, intelligence is one security ministry that has grown significantly since 1994. The simple question remains - underlined by the axing of the NIA's top structure - what is it the spies actually do that's worth all that money? Hopefully Kasrils will answer that question in the year ahead.

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