SSA move to Presidency may lead to further secrecy, Parliamentary oversight crucial
10 August 2021
The least surprising of the changes made to the Cabinet was the doing away with the State Security Agency (SSA). There had to be severe lessons seen to be taught, and the Ministers of State Security and Defence were the ones who caught it in the neck.
As expected, the President’s close ally, Police Minister Bheki Cele, was left unscathed, despite all accounts that of the three security cluster entities, the South African Police Service (SAPS) performed by far the worst.
Naturally all fingers are now pointing to the National Police Commissioner, General Kehla Sithole, who should probably be counting up his pension benefits which may have to come into play in the near future.
By far the biggest move was to simply do away with an entire Ministry – the State Security Ministry – and to sweep it and its Deputy Minister under the Presidency. Indeed, the President claimed that there were many countries in the world which have the Intelligence agencies (in our case, the State Security Agency, Crime Intelligence and Defence intelligence) answering directly to the President.