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The President, in his State of the Nation address at the Opening of
Parliament on 20 May, in this tenth year of our young democracy,
drove home his marching orders to government services compelling us
to focus on Performance, Delivery and Accountability.
It is the duty of all in the Intelligence Services to place the
President's "getting on with business" exhortations at the heart of
their work - from Minister and managers to cryptographers and
couriers, from those involved in the collection of information to
those who analyse and evaluate, from trainers and technicians to
those who run the risks in the shadows. If we are to succeed in our
tasks, then each of us must clearly answer such questions as: What
are we here for? What are our priorities? How best to make do with
limited resources?
Our core business
Let us emphasise that this must mean concentrating on and enhancing
our core business, what we should regard as the holy trinity of our
existence:
1. the collection of quality information;
2. its evaluation and analysis;
3. and timely presentation to the decision makers.
Parliament and public, through the Joint Standing Committee for
Intelligence (JSCI), the Auditor General and Inspector General for
Intelligence, must judge us for the unique contribution we are
meant to make.
Learning from history
In our increasingly complex world where the enemy, the battlefields
and threats are not always clear-cut we must utilise the most
modern technologies without downgrading the gathering of
information by human beings. To those who think it is all about the
high-tech world of James Bond, let us never cease learning from the
wisdom of ages.
That master sage, Sun Tzu, wrote over 2,500 years ago on the
quality of intelligence:
What is called 'foreknowledge' cannot be elicited from spirits, nor
from gods, nor by analogy with past events, nor from calculation.
It must be obtained from men (and women) who know the enemy
situation.
Those words remain applicable to this day. Let us not ignore our
own history. That military genius Shaka well knew the importance of
spying out the enemy. He formed a specialised unit, the Khangela
amaNkengane, whose duty it was to "khangela" - observe the comings
and goings of the "amaNkengane", the British, from the heights
above iThekwini (Durban harbour) where to this day there is a place
known as Khangela - often mispronounced as Congella.
Those "amakhangela"- the look-outs - were members of the community
who loved their country and are early examples of South Africa's
dedicated spies. We call them: Ukukhusela isizwe! Protectors of the
nation! Our people were eager to collect information on the British
and Dutch colonisers and were curious about what went on back in
Britain and the Netherlands.
That universal need for domestic security, and what was brewing
beyond ones' mountains and shores, led to the development of both
internal and external intelligence services in most countries and
gave rise to what is regarded as the world's "second oldest
profession". In referring to our heritage we have reference not
only to the wars of resistance against foreign conquest, including
the Anglo-Boer war, but notably from the experience of the struggle
for national liberation and democracy - which gave rise to
intelligence services on either side of the barricades.
After 1994 the successful amalgamation of those structures
established our new transformed services and we need to
particularly recall the role of former Minister Joe Nhlanhla and
others during this process. We continue building on the heritage of
our own community of amakhangela and from the best of international
experience.
Challenges of today's world:
The security threats of the new century are very different from
those of the old. They pose new challenges, for which a new
approach is required. The polarised world order of the Cold War era
has given way to more uncertainty and unpredictability. The
globalisation of the world economy, communications and technology,
places us in an ever-shrinking world. At the same time there is
relentless pressure on resources such as energy, water, minerals,
fertile land and food, leading to increased competition and
potential for conflict. This trend may be exacerbated by deepening
ethnic, religious and ideological differences, intolerance and a
different kind of polarisation. This is not a passing phase, it is
here to stay. It affects everyone, especially a new and diverse
nation like South Africa, with a range of domestic challenges and
wide international responsibilities, including our obligations
within our region and our commitment to the African renaissance, to
the African Union and New Partnership for Africa's Development
(NEPAD).
Struggle for limited resources
A consequence of the struggle for limited resources such as oil has
seen a century of instability in the Middle East, and the cycle of
intervention and resistance of which the present upheaval in Iraq
is just another tragic chapter. Already attempts to destabilise
West Africa are evident in the scramble by foreign interests for
newly discovered oil reserves. With global long-term shortages
imminent, scientists are investigating the hydrogen fuel cell as an
energy source. President George W Bush talks of the future
"hydrogen economy". Platinum is being advanced as a possible
catalyst to convert hydrogen into this new form of energy. If
successful, then we in South Africa are sitting on 86% of the new
energy source of the world. Whatever the developments it is
important that we take the necessary security steps to ensure
stability and solidarity in our region and continent, and protect
our resources for the benefit of our people.
Impact of globalisation
Globalisation can bring benefits: sharing of technology and
improvements in telecommunications, ease of travel, greater scope
for concerted international action to deal with poverty, natural
disasters, disease, and environmental changes. But it also opens
the way to terrorism, organised crime, trafficking in people and
drugs, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction technology,
money laundering - the new global threats. Criminals and terrorists
have access to the same new technology as governments, and are
often better and faster at putting it to use. They are able to
switch their bases of operations, benefiting from 'soft'
jurisdictions, where laws are lax or ignored, where corruption is
rife, where they can operate in secret. We must not fall behind in
surveillance capacity, information technology or operational
skills.
Global responsibilities and interests
We cannot allow states to fail, economies to collapse and conflict
to occur unchecked. This is not just because we have a moral
responsibility to help others, but because these are a breeding
ground for threats to the wider world, including South Africa and
Africa.
Importance of good intelligence
In recent years the dominant theme in intelligence circles has been
"the failure of intelligence" with reference to the 9/11
catastrophe and terrorist outrages from East Africa to Bali, from
Moscow to Madrid; controversy surrounding Iraq's missing weapons of
mass destruction; the Kelly saga in Britain; the blowing up of the
Chechnya leader under the noses of his Russian backers; allegations
of manipulation of terrorism alert levels for political purposes -
all reflect negatively on the intelligence community
worldwide.
The latest revelation from America concerns the 50 precision-guided
air strikes against the top Iraqi leadership at the start of the
war last year. It has been revealed that all were unsuccessful
owing to the lack of reliable information. (1) There is no doubt
that if Sun Tzu were alive today he would remind us never to
neglect agents on the ground at the expense of the latest
technology.
Our country - which has demonstrated a good record in containing
terrorist threats in recent years - is not immune from
danger.
We need to develop our intelligence and security capability, to
foresee the imminent threats, so we can more effectively deal with
them. Good intelligence saves money. It has been said that one good
agent is worth a division of soldiers on the battlefield. Reliable
agents must provide the link in the intelligence cycle with
technological advances as the other pillar. As never before,
"Scienta est potentia"- knowledge is power - Ulwazi nga
mandla!
Partnership, at home and abroad
Good intelligence and security crucially depends on:
* co-ordination and partnership at home, so that we use the
resources we have effectively, minimising wasteful duplication and
unnecessary rivalry; and:
* international partnerships, in which we work with friends and
neighbours alike, to pool our efforts where possible and to deal
with global threats on a truly cooperative basis.
Using resources better
In a country like ours, where we urgently need better housing,
health, schools, the delivery of safe water and electricity, we
must ensure the maximum value of our money through well-run
Services. We can achieve so much more by maximising partnerships
between our agencies. This applies especially to central databases,
communication systems, development of new technologies, and
fostering a spirit of co-operation. We must ensure the sustained
coordination of databases within government's financial, legal,
security, defence and intelligence clusters.
Secrecy versus accountability
Effective security and intelligence operations rely on secrecy.
Otherwise they will be operating with one hand tied behind their
back. But secrecy must not be an end in itself, or a cover for
abuses. Our Services operate in the name of our democratic
Government and all the people of South Africa. They must therefore
be accountable for what they do, how they do it and gain the trust
of our people. They must operate within the law. Their spending and
actions must be subject to scrutiny. We in South Africa know only
too painfully what happens when the secret services operate without
proper control and oversight, and become a law unto themselves. The
JSCI and Inspector General have a crucial responsibility and we
accept that the agreed restriction over operational information
requires integrity from all of us.
Quality not quantity
The best guarantee of responsible, cost-effective and successful
operations is the quality of our own amakhangela to whom we entrust
these vital functions. We must ensure they receive the best
possible training and skills development and occupy appropriate
posts. We must insist on the highest moral and professional
standards from the most junior levels all the way to the top. We
must hold them to account if they should fail, but also ensure they
have our full material and moral support. Quality, not quantity is
what we need: some of the best services in the world are among the
smallest and have attained an excellence with relatively meagre
resources. We need to avoid a proliferation of unnecessary
structures and posts with more persons doing less work.
THE FORCES AND MEANS:
Having outlined our views towards meeting the key challenges we
face in the 21st Century let us briefly look at the forces and
means at our disposal and how best to utilise our resources.
FORCES:
National Intelligence Agency (NIA)
The National Intelligence Agency is the biggest of our Services and
is responsible for domestic and counter intelligence. It has
undergone a major transformation including refocusing its mandate
to better deal with a wide range of intelligence and security
functions. NIA has had to strengthen its capacity in the provinces,
contend with enormous vetting demands which it still has to get to
grips with, conduct security investigations and auditing, technical
surveillance counter measures and successfully counter espionage
and terrorist threats. NIA's professionalism is exemplified by the
efficient way it has dealt with the security demands for many
international events hosted in our country and the national
elections, including the Presidential inauguration.
South African Secret Service (SASS)
The SASS mandate is the collection of information on the situation
outside our borders by means that cannot simply be obtained through
diplomatic channels and open sources in pursuit of our national
interests abroad. This does not mean that SASS members regard the
foreign environment as necessarily hostile. They collaborate and
form partnerships with their counterparts wherever feasible. The
past few years has seen the expansion of our presence abroad,
particularly in Africa where SASS and our specialised support unit
continue to play a critical role in conflict resolution in the
Democratic Republic of Congo, the Great Lakes area and
elsewhere.
National Intelligence Coordinating Committee (NICOC)
NICOC coordinates and enhances the information and analytical
products supplied by our domestic and foreign intelligence
services, including the identification of possible threats. It
provides intelligence estimates to Cabinet and other government
clients and is seeking to attain higher levels of excellence in
identifying strategic intelligence tasks in priority areas and in
predicting outcomes. NICOC is reconceptualising our National Early
Warning Centre to link with a SADC Regional Centre in
Gaborone.
National Communications Centre (NCC)
The NCC is our state of the art communications monitoring section
and is vital to our country's security. It is staffed by extremely
dedicated and highly skilled personnel. It is involved in
establishing the Office of Interceptions Centre and operates in
strict compliance with the law under a judge's authorisation. The
NCC must ensure investment and training in information technology
and is helping establish the electronic communications security
company, COMSEC (Pty) Ltd. that will cater exclusively for
government's needs.
South African National Academy of Intelligence (SANAI)
SANAI, established near Mafeking last year, after the initial
Academy in Pretoria was closed down, is tasked with developing
training and skills of our amakhangela, as well as engaging in
research and curricula development. Its mandate also extends to
training personnel from fraternal African states. The Academy has
been recording steady progress.
Intelligence Services Council (ISC)
The ISC was established last year as an independent oversight
structure to attend to human resource issues and service
conditions. It has filled an important vacuum in attending to their
needs and interests and has swiftly proved its worth. Sadly, the
passing away just last week of their Deputy Chairperson, Mr.
Richard Knollys has robbed us of an outstanding official who made a
great contribution to the transformation and unity of our services.
Our sincere condolences to his family and colleagues.
Crime Intelligence and Defence Intelligence
This budget vote does not deal with crime and defence intelligence.
I take the opportunity, however, to express appreciation for their
exceptional work and to stress that the Ministers of Defence,
Safety and Security and I are committed to strengthening
collaboration.
THE MEANS:
The Budget
Madam Speaker, Honourable Members,
Let us now consider the financial means at our disposal. In this
financial year the amount allocated for the civilian intelligence
services budget is R1, 978, 647 billion rands. This is 0, 53% of
the total government budget or 0,14% of GDP and represents a R316
million increase over last year. The allocation has more than
doubled over the last four years, growing by 115%. Whilst this
shows government's recognition of the role of the Services the
increase needs to be seen relative to the 1995-2001 period where it
scarcely rose. The allocation for 1995 was R818 million and by 2000
had only grown to R840 million - a minimal R22 million increase
that failed to keep pace with the inflation rate.
This meant that until 2001 the intelligence budget was virtually
static, yet considerable funds were required for retirement and
severance packages brought about by the amalgamation process.
The dramatic increase from 2001 onwards was necessitated by our
growing presence abroad; new construction projects; capital
equipment for our National Communications Centre's expanding role;
the transfer of the Academy to Mafeking; establishment of the ISC
and Office of the Inspector General; growth of the Ministry and
increases in the overall staff compliment of all the Services. One
result is that the salary bill increased to well over 57% of the
budget with NIA's personnel expenditure topping that. This could
not but affect spending patterns to the long-term detriment of
operational and capital equipment requirements. Serious adjustments
will have to be made in favour of direct operational activity - the
rock-face of business - and the need to ensure that the capital
equipment and facilities being consumed on an annual basis are
systematically renewed so that they are available in the long-term.
We dare not leave a future Minister with the legacy of obsolete
equipment and insufficient operational and capital renewal
funds.
I have taken immediate steps to curtail certain construction plans
which I regard as non-essential and will reduce the size and budget
of my Ministry. Our fundamental challenge is to bring about a
sustainable, balanced ratio between personnel, operational and
capital allocation. This will not be quick or easy to achieve but
is imperative if our Services are to meet the challenges of the
21st Century.
Madam Speaker, Honourable Members:
We must ensure that we give value for money. We must ensure that
the funds entrusted to us are spent correctly and prudently and
that we avoid wasteful and superfluous expenditure. At the end of
each year we must be accountable and ask: How well did we perform?
What did we deliver? and "What difference did we make?
The way forward
Regarding the way forward I acknowledge the notable efforts of my
predecessor Minister Lindiwe Sisulu to promote partnerships with
civil society, including the media, academia, business and
non-governmental organisations. Their contribution to development
of policy in areas such as the classification and declassification
of government records and the regulation of the private
intelligence and security industry will be of value in our review
of the White Paper on Intelligence.
I also acknowledge Minister Sisulu's efforts to place intelligence
at the centre of government and will build partnerships with
service delivery departments to overcome obstacles that may
threaten our country's progress.
Ten Priorities For Action
As part of the way forward with a focus on improving our
capabilities over the next five years, I am instructing my Service
Chiefs to provide me with business plans concerning the following
ten priorities for immediate action:
1. the optimum utilisation of resources, ensuring sufficient funds
are allocated to core business and the necessary adjustment in
personnel, operational and capital expenditure;
2. the targeted recruitment, training and strategic placement of
members;
3. the improved operational capacity in the provinces and
abroad;
4. deepening synergy with regard to intelligence sharing and
coordination between all Services, including crime, defence and
finance;
5. enhancement of NICOC's strategic analytical skills, national
intelligence estimates and the National Early Warning Centre;
6. developing intelligence cooperation in Africa and with our
international partners with a focus on conflict prone areas of our
continent;
7. strengthening security at our ports of entry;
8. fully implementing the Minimum Information Security Standards
(MISS) within all government departments;
9. the projected development and costing of the Intelligence
Academy, its syllabus and training commitments and its
future;
10. and comprehensive improvements in our vetting capacity.
Business plans for these priorities and other tasks I have referred
to must be presented to me within three months! The performance
contracts and annual evaluation of management and staff will be
related to these objectives. We are not talking about quick-fix
solutions but building and sustaining quality performance for the
21st Century. We are realistic and aware that "a nation's ability
to fashion an elaborate intelligence network is limited by the
development of skills which can take decades, indeed centuries to
define." (2)
Our services have been proving their worth, and we mean to create a
culture of excellence. Implementing these ten priorities in the
short term will build on the achievements of ten years and help us
take qualitative strides forward over the next five years. If
necessary, we will be considering the merits of a full-scale
Intelligence Services Review.
My Pledge
South Africa needs effective, vigilant, professional, accountable
intelligence and security services. We must foster teamwork at
home, and partnership with those who share our interests abroad. We
need a well-informed and secure South Africa, with a government
better able to carry out its programme of development to provide a
better life and opportunity for all our people and able to play an
effective and responsible role in Africa and the wider world.
I pledge myself, and the women and men who work in our intelligence
and security agencies, to work for these goals.
In Appreciation
Last year we promoted an advert celebrating another normal day in
South Africa. Our acknowledgement to the people of South Africa and
to those unsung members of the Intelligence Services: serving,
retired and deceased. They are neither super-human caricatures of
James Bond nor spooks but our own amakhangela who keep watch to
ensure we can all work and sleep in safety. Theba ya sechaba!
Shield of the Nation!
My appreciation to the Director Generals, Vusi Mavimbela of NIA,
Tim Dennis of SASS, Jeff Maqetuka of NICOC, Mphakama Mbete of
SANAI, Sizakele Sixgashe of the ISC, and all their dedicated
management and staff members. My acknowledgement to the Inspector
General, Zola Ngcakani and to the Chairperson of the JSCI Siyabonga
Cwele and the newly sworn-in members of the committee. Many thanks
to the Head of Ministerial Services, Dennis Thokozani Nkosi ka
Dlomo, and my personal staff who work extremely long hours and are
providing the support I need.
Our Services and country owe a deep debt of gratitude to the first
Minister of Intelligence in a democratic South Africa, Joe
Nhlanhla. We congratulate him on being awarded the Order of Luthuli
by President Mbeki and wish him improved health. In the spirit of
this speech. I intend introducing annual awards in his name for the
best cost effective innovations per Service, Province and
individual.
Conclusion
On a closing note, a wise man has said:
"The ideal intelligence report can be read by the light of a match
on a restive horse on a windy night." (3)
I hope we can spare our President such discomfort, but if we are to
succeed, then the product of our labour must be compelling.
Honourable members I ask you to adopt the budget allocation for the
civilian Intelligence Services.
I thank you.
* (1) "Errors in early attacks on Iraqi Leaders" by Jehl and
Schmitt, June 13, 2004
* (2). "Ambivalent Bedfellows: German-American Intelligence
Relations" by Johnson & Freyberg
* (3). Lt General Sir William Platt (no idea who he is but it's a
fun quote)
Issued by: Ministry of Intelligence Services
23 June 2004
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