Ntate Modupi and your Teaching Staff, thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to interact with the future leaders of our country.
Dumelang.
It is both an honour and with a sense of pride that I took time out of the office in Pretoria to come and inspire our youth, the future leaders of our country. These are our cadres who must carry the baton into the future. I am also very proud of the work that I do, which during the course of this address, you will all believe that you too, will someday be in my position and serve your country with pride and dignity. As the future leaders of our country, it is very important that we all understand where we come from as a people and as a country and why intelligence work is so important for our country and to us as citizens.
When you serve your country in the intelligence field, it means, first of all, you are patriotic, you believe in and respect the Constitution of the country and that the security and the wellbeing of your fellow South Africans is a top priority in your work. It is like playing in the national teams, in Bafana Bafana, Banyana Banyana or the Springboks.
It means you work to protect your country against enemies by gathering information, which you then analyse to determine whether there is a threat or not against us or whether there is an economic opportunity which our country should take advantage of.
This analysis allows our President and the government to take decisions that will make South Africa succeed in developing the economy, we will also be able to arrest those who are crooks and thieves, this information also makes us understand and get to know which countries in the World share our views and regard them as our friends. That is what intelligence is about.
But let us go back to history very briefly, because intelligence in past, before 1994, was very much the opposite. People who worked in the intelligence field were feared. Before our freedom in 1994, the apartheid government had several structures of intelligence. It had what was called the Bureau for State Security (it was known as the BOSS), there was the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and the Military Intelligence Division of the South African Defence Force (SADF). These institutions worked very hard to ensure that we Black people do not achieve our freedom. They provided information that ensured that our freedom fighters were identified, arrested, tortured and many were also killed. I believe you have read the stories about the deaths of our freedom fighters such as Steve Biko, Solomon Mahlangu and Stanza Bopape.
Many of us who were freedom fighters had to leave South Africa to join our liberation movements, the African National Congress (ANC), the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) and the Azanian People’s Organisation (AZAPO) who provided us military training in countries outside South Africa, such as Mozambique, Angola, Tanzania and Uganda.
Some did not leave South Africa and they continued the fight against the evil system of apartheid. Many were detained and arrested, put on trial and sentenced to many years in prison.
During that time, the concept of human rights did not exist. These institutions were controlled by men only, and women were employed only in junior positions. The intelligence work did not involve much analysis, it worked on making sure that freedom fighters are tortured so that they can confess, after which they would be convicted or even be killed. I am sure you must have heard about a person called Mr Eugene De Kok.
While we were outside the country being trained under the ANC, the PAC and AZAPO, we too created our own intelligence structures to ensure that we do not have people who work against our aim for freedom (remember there were those who were very scared of the white government and some were given money to spy against us). Our intelligence structures were also used to plan our military operations as freedom fighters. Before you can carry out an attack, you must have information about your enemy, where, how and which target you must attack. When you gather information, analyse it and give advice on what should or should not be done next, that is intelligence work.
Our liberation movements had many young and bright people like you who became soldiers and intelligence officers because the apartheid repression caused thousands of youths like yourselves to join. These young men and women worked both inside and outside our country. But then change had to happen. Both sides of the conflict had a common understanding that this country belongs to all of us, black and white. Our leaders realised from both sides that if conflict continues, our country would become a wasteland, that you our young people will have no country to be proud of. Negotiations started until we had a democratic South Africa in 1994.
Then the intelligence structures from both sides were integrated, were put together into a single institution, the State Security Agency under the Ministry of State Security, to serve a democratic South Africa. In this democracy we then created very strict rules about how the intelligence officers should behave and how they should go about doing their work. No more killings or detentions. Our laws are very clear about our work, laws such as National Strategic Intelligence Act, 1994, the Intelligence Services Oversight Act, 1994, the Intelligence Services Act, 2002, Regulation of Interception of Communications Act, 2002 and the General Intelligence Laws Amendment Act, 2013 (GILAA).
In a democratic South Africa, you will not be arrested for disagreeing with the government, as long as you express your views in a peaceful manner or you form your own political party that will debate your views in parliament and convince others about your views.
In a democratic South Africa, intelligence officers do not get involved in party politics, we look for the crooks and thieves who want to destroy our country and those do not want our country to succeed. Those who sell our information to other countries about our plans are also treated as criminals because they are working against our country. So we also analyse developments in the world, how they affect our future or how they threaten us as a society.
Anybody who does intelligence work, is a person who loves the country and believes in its future and contributes to the good of the country. That is what we call patriotism, all of us must be patriotic about our country. You do not choose to be born in a particular country.
The country into which you are born, is the only country chosen for you, so you must be patriotic, even if there are problems, you must contribute to solve those problems. Do not become part of the problem.
Let me talk more about the role of intelligence in a democratic South Africa. The main and primary role of the State Security Agency is to protect (uphold) the constitutional order and the rule of law so that all of us can exercise our rights as written in the Bill of Rights in the Constitution.
The Preamble of our Constitution says: I quote:
We, the people of South Africa.
1. “Heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights;
2. Lay the foundation for a democratic and open society in which government is based on the will of the people and every citizen is equally protected by law;
3. Improve the quality of life of all citizens and free the potential of each person; and
4. Build a united and democratic South Africa able to take its rightful place as a sovereign state in the family of nations”. Close quote.
As an institution of a democratic country, the State Security Agency works to achieve these objectives and most importantly, national security.
National Security means the ability of our government to protect us and the country from all kinds of attacks and be able to provide the basic needs for all citizens. For the government to be able to achieve this, it needs us to be in the intelligence field, in the police, in the defence force, in the courts and prisons to lock away the criminals.
Our Constitution, also tells us how we should regard national security. In part it says, I quote: “National security must reflect the resolve (meaning our firm intentions) of South Africans, as individuals and as a nation, to live as equals, to live in peace and harmony, to be free from fear and want and to seek a better life.
In addition to the Constitution, the work of intelligence is guided by our policies, which tell us why intelligence must be done in the first place, and how such work must be carried out.
Our policy says we must work towards the:
- safeguarding of the Constitution
- upholding (meaning defending) of Fundamental Rights
- promotion of security, stability, cooperation & development, in RSA & Southern Africa
- achievement of national prosperity & contributing to global peace & other globally defined priorities
- promotion of RSA’s ability to face foreign threats & enhance competitiveness in a dynamic world.
From all of this, young ladies and gentlemen, you can see that intelligence work is not about what we usually see in the spy movies all the time. Intelligence work is a respectable and noble profession. We are the guardians of peace, democracy and the Constitution.
So in order to do our work properly, we work both inside and outside of South Africa to make sure that “All South Africans are and feel safe”.
This means we focus our attention on threats to our national security, those things that make us feel unsafe, such as organised crime, corruption, terrorism, the deliberate instigation of social and political instability and violence, as you always see during violent service delivery protests and violent strike action, espionage (which means those who spy against us) and the illegal access to our national databases.
So, young ladies and gentlemen, you may ask: what are the skills required for intelligence work?
Given the many threats we always face, the State Security Agency, offers many career opportunities. As you think of going to university or college, you may be interested to study, political science, international affairs or politics, economics, sociology, information technology, physics, mathematics, law, foreign languages, human resources and electrical engineering.
These will equip you to work in our exciting and dynamic analytical environment, where you would be able to specialise on areas ranging from social stability, regional and continental security policy, global economy and communications technology. Some of you may find it more exciting to work in the intelligence collection or counter intelligence environments.
Once you have completed your chosen degree, the State security Agency would offer career opportunities in the following specialised areas (all of which contribute to intelligence work);
- Analysts (political, economic, socio-economic, international relations)
- Investigators
- Engineers
- Vetting officers
- Security specialist
- ICT specialists
- Technicians
- Mathematicians
- HR consultants
- Financial officers
- Secretarial/Administration officers
- Supply Chain Management specialist
- Foreign language speakers
- Specialist in various areas, for example,
o Education Training Development
o Transport
o Scientists e.g. nuclear physicist
- Lawyers and other legal expertise, for example,
o Labour
o Criminology
o Fraud detectors
The world of intelligence is an exciting world. It is a world where we work quietly without seeking personal glory.
We need all personalities and welcome everyone from all cultural backgrounds because, as a country with different cultures, languages and race groups, we can better understand the world and what is happening around us and be able to give our government reliable information and analysis so that it can best respond to the needs of all of us.
In conclusion, I hope that I have lit a spark inside of you to become part of those brave and hard working men and women who work quietly and tirelessly to put first the security of our country, our people and the security of the all humanity, above their personal ambitions.
I thank you.
