National DA wants to change spying laws to improve transparency and oversight John Steenhuisen claims that ‘such abuse actively threatens and imposes on the privacy of all South Africans’ BL PREMIUM

DA chief whip John Steenhuisen plans to table a private member’s bill to amend certain laws to limit surveillance abuses and improve transparency. Amid repeated allegations of improper interception of electronic communications, Steenhuisen plans to have the General Intelligence Laws Amendment Bill tabled as the first order of business of the sixth parliament. “Intelligence-related legislation contains several legislative lacunas that can readily be manipulated or abused,” read a notice recently published in the Government Gazette. Along with shortcomings in the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-related Information Act (Rica), Steenhuisen claimed, “such abuse actively threatens and imposes on the privacy of all South Africans”.

The proposal follows widespread allegations against SA’s intelligence services and comes as the Right2Know (R2K) campaign awaits a response from the president over its Promotion of Access to Information Act appl...