It's time to fire Cecil Burgess as chairperson of the secret JSCI

I have today tabled a Notice of Motion calling for the censure and removal of Mr Cecil Burgess, the Chairperson of the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence (JSCI), for failing to table numerous annual reports in Parliament.

The fact is that the JSCI seems to have gone rogue, flagrantly ignoring its obligations to table annual reports in Parliament.

We have a bizarre situation where Parliament's ability to conduct effective oversight of the State Security Agency, Crime Intelligence and Defence Intelligence, is being undermined by the JSCI.

The JSCI is required, in terms of the Intelligence Oversight Act (No. 40 of 1994), to table annual reports in Parliament.

The annual reports are vital to ensuring that the State Security Agency, Crime Intelligence and Defence Intelligence are accountable to Parliament.

However, the Joint Stranding Committee on Intelligence has failed to table annual reports for the 2010/11, 2011/12 and 2012/13 financial years in Parliament.

The JSCI is not above the law.

There was a suggestion that the JSCI annual reports had been delayed by the Presidency. 

However, a letter from, Mr Collins Chabane, the Minister in the Presidency, dated 16 October 2013, confirms that the JSCI annual reports were never submitted to the Presidency, as required by the Intelligence Oversight Act (No. 40 of 1994).

In the end, because these annual reports have not been tabled, the State Security Agency, Crime Intelligence and Defence Intelligence, are effectively not accountable to Parliament.

That is why my Notice of Motion calls on Parliament to: 

• Censure the chairperson; 
• Order the committee to table the outstanding reports immediately; 
• Order the chairperson to provide and explanation as to why the committee failed to table the reports; and 
• Order the removal of the chairperson.

This has gone on for too long.

It is time for Cecil Burgess to go.

Statement issued by David Maynier MP, DA Shadow Minister of Defence & Military Veterans, October 29 2013

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