Cooperation of South African democratic intelligence oversight structures for good governance

D.Litt. et Phil. (Public Management and Governance)Abstract: Before 1994, members of the intelligence services did not operate within a particular set of statutory and regulatory frameworks. At the time, there was no clear separation of civilian, police and/or military intelligence services (Bruneau and Boraz: 2007). Their priorities were centred on the collection, analysis and dissemination of internal security threats posed by the liberation movements. Further, their preoccupation was to fiercely enforce the draconian statutory and regulatory frameworks to protect white supremacy and advance the apartheid agenda (Dombroski in Bruneau and Dombroski: 2001). Given the arrangement, the apartheid government did not make any effort to create any intelligence oversight structure to ensure the compliance of members of the intelligence services to the country’s statutory and regulatory prescripts. However, after 1994 the ANC government undertook a number of measures to correct the situation. These measures gave rise to the creation of the clear civilian, police and military intelligence services with explicit sets of powers and legislated mandates. Through the Intelligence Services Oversight Act, 1994, the government established multifaceted intelligence oversight machinery. This was done to ensure the compliance of the intelligence services with the country’s statutory and regulatory framework. Unfortunately, the operational modalities of the intelligence oversight structures remain fragmented, uncoordinated and reflect a silo approach, thereby playing a minimal or no role in the promotion of good governance results (Dube: 2013); (Dlomo: 2004); (Netshithenzhe: 2005). This thesis seeks to find ways to improve the cooperation of these structures when overseeing members of the intelligence services. To achieve the above-mentioned objective, the thesis firstly described the context - that is, the South African intelligence services and its oversight machinery. Secondly, a global benchmarking exercise on selected countries was conducted for the purpose of drawing lessons for South Africa. Thirdly, the thesis presented techniques, methods..