Secret interviews for Inspector-General of Intelligence position must be stopped

8 March 2015

We have requested the Speaker of the National Assembly, Baleka Mbete, to facilitate a review the decision taken by the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence (JSCI) on 03 March 2015 to interview shortlisted candidates for the position of Inspector-General of Intelligence in closed meetings.

We believe that the process of appointing the Inspector-General of Intelligence should be conducted in an open and transparent manner and that the decision to conduct the interviews of shortlisted candidates in closed meetings was wrong. 

This is because:

The decision is inconsistent with the Section 59 of the Constitution which requires Parliament to conduct its business in an open and transparent manner; 

The process is inconsistent since the shortlisting of candidates was conducted in an open meeting of a Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence sub-committee on Tuesday 24 February 2015; and

The decision is unprecedented since the process of appointing the last Inspector-General for Intelligence, Advocate Faith Radebe, included interviews that were conducted in an open meeting of the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence.

The argument that the interviews should be conducted in closed meetings because of the sensitive nature of the position also cannot be sustained given the fact that two senior members of the national intelligence structure - Mr Barry Gilder and Mr Dennis Dlomo - were previously interviewed for the position in open meetings of the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence.

We would therefore like the Speaker of the National Assembly, Baleka Mbete, to facilitate a review of the decision to ensure that:

The process of appointing the Inspector-General of Intelligence is conducted in an open and transparent manner;

Interviews and deliberations on shortlisted candidates be conducted in open meetings of the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence; and

That the Curriculum Vitae of the shortlisted candidates be made public.

The decision to conduct interviews for the position of Inspector-General of Intelligence in closed meetings was strongly opposed by the members of opposition parties serving on the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence.

A letter, from DA Chief Whip, John Steenhuisen MP, requesting the review was therefore submitted to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Baleka Mbete, on Friday 06 March 2015.

In the end, we cannot have a situation where the Inspector-General of Intelligence is effectively appointed behind closed doors by a secret conclave in the form of the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence.

Statement issued by David Maynier MP, DA Shadow Deputy Minister of State Security, March 8 2015

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