National Assembly crushes appointment of Cecil Burgess as Inspector-General of Intelligence 

24 June 2015

Stone Sizane, the Chief Whip of the Majority Party, has been forced to withdraw the nomination of Cecil Burgess for the position of Inspector-General of Intelligence because he could not muster the support of two-thirds of the members of the National Assembly.

The Inspector-General of Intelligence literally stands between the rule of law and the rogue spooks lurking in Crime Intelligence, Defence Intelligence and the State Security Agency.

That is why the Inspector-General of Intelligence is required to be impartial and independent and to perform his functions without fear or favour. 

It’s extraordinary therefore that Cecil Burgess was nominated for the position of Inspector-General of Intelligence because he has a proven track record of not being impartial, of not being independent, and of performing his duties with favour, and indeed fervour, for the ruling party and President Jacob Zuma.

He greased the “Secrecy Bill” through Parliament, ran the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence like a rogue spy unit, and cooked up a “whitewashed” report on “Nkandlagate”.

That is why we will not support the nomination of Advocate Cecil Valentine Burgess as the next Inspector-General of Intelligence.

The Chief Whip of the Majority Party, Stone Sizane, will now have to go back to the drawing board and either try and muster the necessary support for Cecil Burgess or hopefully consider the nomination of a more suitable candidate for the position of Inspector-General of Intelligence.

Statement issued by David Maynier MP, DA Shadow Deputy Minister of State Security, June 24 2015