SA’s cabinet will hold a special meeting on Sunday March 15 2020 to discuss the spread of coronavirus.
Photo: Siyabulela Duda
SA’s cabinet will hold a special meeting on Sunday March 15 2020 to discuss the spread of coronavirus.
Photo: Siyabulela Duda
Minister in the Presidency Jackson Mthembu announced that Cabinet has approved the re-establishment of the National Security Council (NSC) in an effort to streamline the co-ordination of all security-related work of the country.
The council, Mthembu said, will be responsible for the approval of the National Security Strategy (NSS), the National Intelligence Priorities Framework (NIPF) of the country and National Intelligence Estimates (NIEs). This serves as an attempt to rebuild South Africa’s stripped-down security services, which were battered during state capture.
Jacob Zuma’s administration gave key security roles to dubious characters – with some reports claiming that disgraced former spy boss Arthur Fraser had diverted national secrets to his own computer server before passing them on to the State Security Agency (SSA). The rebuilding job on this is now well underway, however. A number of the big-wigs from the ANC’s Cabinet will form the NSC:
The decision has even gained the cautious approval of the DA. Shadow Minister of State Security Dianne Kohler-Barnard is in favour of the move, but she vowed to monitor their operations with hawk-like precision:
“We cautiously welcome the re-establishment of the National Security Council (NSC). The DA will closely monitor the re-establishment of this unit and ensure that history does not repeat itself. This council must not be above scrutiny, as it will take immense effort to regain local and international trust.
“It is common knowledge that the State Security Agency became one of the areas of mass-looting during the Zuma era. It was under Zuma that the NSC was side-lined, and the SSA manipulated to become his private spy centre. During those years, our formerly globally admired entity became a laughing stock.”
Dianne Kohler-Barnard