THE National Intelligence Service is so keen to show that it is part of the new South Africa that it is gathering information on the implementation of the reconstruction and development programme and identifying impediments to the implementation of this government policy.
The NIS is out of bounds. It is the role of the national intelligence network to identify and gather information on threats to national security. What its agents are doing now is what they did under the National Party government — ensuring the smooth-running of party policy and identifying those who will impede or oppose it.
They should be slapped down.
But the question that should now be asked is whether it is wise for the new government to pursue its current path of taking over the old apartheid intelligence network lock, stock and barrel. Not only was this network involved in “dirty tricks”, showing little respect for citizens’ rights, it was also incompetent, having fed the “total onslaught” myth with misinformation for decades.
There are few major threats to state security now — and national intelligence should be drastically scaled down to a size appropriate to a lessened threat and a narrower, non-party political role.
If the NIS really cares about the RDP, it will be happy to see the state budget spent on RDP projects rather than its own, mostly worthless, structures.