SSA refuses to make public intelligence report on KZN looting
7 September 2021
The State Security Agency (SSA) has denied the DA’s request to make public the intelligence report(s) which the then State Security Minister, Ayanda Dlodlo, claimed to have handed over to law enforcement officials ahead of the violence and looting in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and Gauteng in July.
DA Leader, John Steenhuisen, submitted an application in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) to the SSA on 27 July to access the report(s) which Police Minister, Bheki Cele, categorically denied having received.
The Minister of State Security was summarily removed from that position after the violence, and to this date it has not been established which of the Ministers' versions of events is correct.
The DA is not satisfied by the SSA’s decision to not release these reports. The decision to hide behind Section 10 of the Intelligence Services Act and Section 44 of PAIA — is cowardice and highlights the State’s desire to continue to keep the veil of secrecy around the catostrophic events in July. It is this very level of secrecy the High Level Review Panel report decried and obviously the reports would have been redacted to protect the names of operatives, sources and other sensitive information.
However, complete transparency is required in terms of who knew what and when as well as how our security cluster twiddled their thumbs as KwaZulu-Natal’s industries and livlihoods went up in flames.
The DA remains firm in our view that this information is in the public interest. South Africans must know the contents of the supposed report and any intelligence information related to the ANC-sponsored violence which wreaked havoc on communities and businesses in KZN and Gauteng.
If the State is already hiding information on the intelligence reports surrounding the violence in the two provinces, we can be almost certain that the Parliamentary inquiry into these events will merely be an attempt to whitewash the ANC’s failures.
Issued by Dianne Kohler Barnard, DA Shadow Minister of State Security, 7 September 2021
