Malema: is the NIA reporting to the Youth League?
According to reports, Julius Malema, ANCYL President said in an interview, "Intelligence has got a responsibility to deal with that and they found this to be very unacceptable and they thought they needed to alert us." He was referring to a supposed list of people targeting President Jacob Zuma, which he later claimed he would make public (see report).
There are a series of fundamental and deeply problematic issues inherent in Malema's statement.
First, if the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) is giving its intelligence reports to the head of the ANCYL - a party political position with absolutely no public duties or functions - this constitutes a fundamental conflation of party and state.
I will be asking my colleague, Theo Coetzee, MP, to raise this matter with the intelligence portfolio committee, with a view to establishing the facts, whether or not, NIA operatives are handing over secret dossiers to the ANCYL, if so, why, and what action is being taken against them.
Second, if Malema is not referring to the NIA but to some sort of parallel intelligence structure within the ruling party, this too is deeply problematic. It is true that South Africa's intelligence services have been systematically warped over the past few years to serve a number of political agendas, which have nothing to do with their mandate, nevertheless the very reason why intelligence services are run by the state and not political parties is because on the one hand the immense power they wield can be abused, and on the other hand they deal with highly sensitive issues, which are best handled objectively.
One way or the other Julius Malema owes the South African public an explanation. He wants the best of both worlds: on the one hand he wants to pretend he represents the people and on the other hand he deals in secrecy, is not transparent and is unaccountable.
Statement issued by Khume Ramulifho, Democratic Alliance national youth leader, February 23 2010
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