Has South Africa’s State Security Agency (SSA) been hacked? And did the new Head of Crime Intelligence get his Security Clearance in just five days? These are big issues for the Democratic Alliance’s (DA’s) Dianne Kohler-Barnard who sits on the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence. But she tells BizNews that meetings of the last two committees of the last term were cancelled, and now meetings of the committees for this week have also “just been summarily cancelled”. She fumes: “…we have these two major issues, two major, major issues. And last term, we didn’t finish the term, and this term, we haven’t even started the term…What on earth is going on? Frankly, your guess is as good as mine.” – Chris Steyn
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Relevant timestamps from the interview
00:00- Introduction
00:32 – What sparked her inquiry
05:00 – Would hackers need inside help
06:37 – The consequences of leaked emails
08:05 – How confident is she that South Africa can keep it’s secrets safe
10:14 – Security clearance for people in very sensitive positions
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Highlights from the interview
Has South Africa’s State Security Agency (SSA) been hacked? And did the new Head of Crime Intelligence get his Security Clearance in just five days?
These are big issues for the Democratic Alliance’s (DA’s) Dianne Kohler-Barnard, who sits on the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence.
“Well, yet again, as a member of the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence, I, as well as the rest of the team, have all been completely kept in the dark. We’ve had to find about this threat via the media, and an additional issue about clearance via the media.
“Now, at the last two meetings of the last term, they were cancelled. And it was about then that this revelation was seemed to have been known about within the ranks. And now I’m told that the committees for this week have also just been summarily cancelled. And of course it’s not a committee in which one can pick up the phone and discuss these issues. It’s all got to be done in a secure building, no notes, no laptops, no phones, nothing. It is 100% secure and it never leaks from that building.
“So this claim is that South Africa and the State Security Agency thinks it’s been hacked. And it claims by, they think, someone thinks by Britain and the US and that sensitive information has been accessed.
“And immediately I’m asking myself, well, you know, there are many reasons why such information would be leaked to the media, not the least of which could be to play politics and deepen the divide between those two countries and the BRICS countries.”
On the latest controversy regarding security clearances for those in sensitive positions, Kohler-Barnard says: “Apparently, and the claim is, and I don’t doubt it for a moment, that the security clearance of the new Head of Crime Intelligence (Major-General Dumisani Khumalo) was fast-tracked and he received that clearance within five days.
“Now that, to someone not in the know, you may say, oh, well, that’s interesting. Well, actually, it’s a lot more than that because for say an MP, it can take six months, eight months to get clearance. And the lie detector test, you have to go through, jump through a hundred hoops to get your clearance. Now there are some people who don’t ever get clearance.”
As for the much belated security clearance of National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola, she says: “We’ve had the National Police Commissioner appointed a very long time ago, and he’s never had clearance until a few days ago.
“There were many, many issues around that, and they would not give him clearance until certain things had been clarified and cleared up and cleaned up. Now, you tell me how the Head of Crime Intelligence has managed to get his clearance fast-tracked, and how do you fast-track something like that? Do you threaten people? Do you force people to give it to you? I don’t know. Was he at all involved? Was someone else trying to get him clearance in a hurry?”
Commenting on claims that he also owns a spaza shop, which he did not declare, Kohler-Barnard says: “Of course, that’s a massive issue. The spaza shops are linked to many strange things, including international crime in many an instance. So, that in itself is a red flag. So, you tell me how he was given clearance. There are lots of claims about his links to all sorts of entities that have huge question marks above them.
“So let’s see what the Inspector General comes out with…because he’s the final arbiter of looking at items which we may not by law look at, but he’s the investigator and he has access to anything and everything within. So let’s see what he comes up with. We may well find that in fact he does not have clearance and that they have to start again.”
Meanwhile, Kohler-Barnard, is “shaking” her head “to think that we have these two major issues, two major, major issues. And last term, we didn’t finish the term, and this term, we haven’t even started the term because the meetings scheduled for this week have been cancelled”.
She asks: “What on earth is going on? Frankly, your guess is as good as mine.”
Read also:
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An accelerated digital government and it’s role in cybersecurity – Deloitte; Rand Water & Auditor-General of SA
How vulnerable is South Africa to cyber attacks?
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