Marion Edmunds
A special National Intelligence briefing to the Cabinet on how to deal with sensitive and potentially embarrassing information and prevent leaks has been leaked to the Mail & Guardian.
Concern about security leaks and sabotage of government plans prompted National Intelligence to brief Cabinet on how to safeguard sensitive information. A document on safety measures was distributed in the recent Cabinet briefing, and has since then been distributed to government ministries.
The document urges civil servants to be ever-vigilant when dealing with matters that could embarrass, damage or bring down the government. In particular, it lays out guidelines for preserving confidentiality and sensitive information, which could either be contained in documents or on computers.
Implicit in the preamble is the warning that there may be forces at work to sabotage the RDP and the country’s transition.
The authors of the document note that there has been an “escalation of intelligence activities by a growing number of foreign countries and other interest groups”.
Apart from laying down procedures for dealing with bomb attacks and fires, the document describes the differences between “restricted”, “confidential”, “secret” and “top secret” information. According to the definitions, a “restricted document” contains information that could embarrass the government, a “confidential document”, if leaked, could damage the government, a “secret document” might be used by opponents to disrupt the running of government and a “top secret document”, if leaked, could lead to the downfall of the government, the severing of relations with another state or a declaration of war.
“Top secret” and “secret” documents have to be kept in strongrooms or vaults, whereas confidential document must be kept in reinforced steel cabinets. The Cabinet briefing document — a restricted document — also contains a number of tips about keys, fires and how to deal with suspicious-looking maintenance men.
Moe Shaik, advisor to Deputy Minister of Intelligence Jo Nhanhla, would not confirm or deny that the Cabinet briefing took place, but he did say that National Intelligence had a responsibility to protect sensitive government information.
He said that by compiling the report, National Intelligence was not suggesting the need for excessive secrecy. But, said Shaik, “our peace and emerging democracy is fragile and needs to be protected”.
Shaik said that foreign countries were interested to see how South Africa was emerging as a democracy, and that there were interest-brokers who might, for their own political or economic purposes, try to access confidential information.
Shaik said that the leakage of classified documents to the media was a problem. He said that National Intelligence was concerned by recent fires in the RDP and Finance offices. It was speculated in the media that the fires could be part of a sabotage campaign.
Despite this attempt to tighten things up in government, Parliament’s security remains slack. Many parliamentarians suspect their phones may be bugged and a source in the Freedom Front said this week that there were times when the party felt the need to sweep its caucus room for bugs.
A private secretary for a prominent ANC MP said that they had the sorts of conversations on parliamentary phones “that they wanted other people to hear”, and the National Party said this week it had stepped up personal security over the past few weeks, “because they were aware that other parties were interested in getting their hands on confidential information”.
Not all infiltration is cloak-and-dagger. Common criminals are getting through the barriers. Sources in Parliament’s catering department say they suspect that up to R60 000 worth of silver teapots, spoons and crockery have gone missing. A parliamentary spokesman refused to confirm the figure, saying that the tea set audit was still under way.
In the meantime, Parliament’s silver has been locked away to prevent further theft and parliamentarians are being served tea in stainless steel pots.