The current xenophobic attacks, which have cost us so many lives and tainted our country's image, have a lot to do with the intelligence capability and capacity of this country. The question on everybody's lips is: Was the intelligence caught unaware of these xenophobic attacks? Why did they fail to detect it before it erupted?  

It is totally unacceptable and, indeed, unfortunate that such a huge calamitous violent episode in our country, which could have been avoided, escaped our intelligence community's eyes.  

But one needs to remind the Minister that in previous intelligence debates in this Parliament, we have warned the Minister that our borders are dangerously porous, and that something has to be done to control illegal immigrants. But again, we also warned the Minister of Home Affairs that the nature of corruption taking place in that department did not augur well in our serious efforts to preserve and protect the national security of our country. As a Committee we identified the Department of Home Affairs as the single area that poses the greatest threat to our security.  

The fact is that there is no proper control mechanism at our borders that ensures proper treatment of asylum seekers, refugee status, legally admitted people for work, etc. Immigrants get into our country either by buses or taxis, only to disappear into our midst. They then, through corruption, get South African IDs and become eligible to compete with our people for the scarce resources. Of course the constitution says South Africa belongs to all who live in it. 

What do you have now? Looting and blood all over the country. 

The vicious attackers deserve to be punished to the fullest extent of the law and should pay dearly for their crimes. But xenophobia is not going to go away until society itself confronts its history of bigotry, intolerance and hatred against people from other countries, particularly African countries. 

There s plenty of blame going around, but most of it should be directed at our society that habitually discriminates against immigrants. 

We still have yet to know what is the cause of all this violence, and that is why the IFP moved a motion in this Parliament to the effect that a judicial commission of inquiry be instituted, so as to get to the bottom of the causes that led to this calamitous kind of violence. We want to know the truth.

Those who are responsible for perpetrating this kind of violence must be subjected to an extreme brutal law enforcement. We, therefore, appreciate the co-operation between the IFP and the ANC, at a national level, in jointly dealing with this violence. 

On another hand, one can only hope that the illegal immigrants we have in the country, are not here to use South Africa as their springboard to wage political wars in their mother countries. Let us hope they do not infiltrate our security structures and forces for accessing secret information and use it against our country. 

The IFP believes that the rationale to establish the Scorpions was well considered, and we are therefore, against its proposed dissolution. We believe that dissolving the Scorpions would constitute the great threat to our national interest. 

Again, the apparent deterioration of the relationship between the SAPS and the DSO, which has irretrievably broken down, was mainly caused by the overlap of mandates between the SAPS and DSO, and this was indeed unfortunate, and this has caused all the institutional conflicts we are witnessing right now.  

In supporting this view, the Khampepe Commission Report has this to say in this regard: "The co-ordination and co-operation between SAPS and the intelligence community appears to be somewhat in place but operationally ineffective. 

"There is no co-ordination and sharing of information between the NIA and the DSO, and where there was the sharing of information between NIA and police, it is ineffective. In security circles, sharing of information is critical. It could mean the difference between a calamity and calm in a country. This scenario constitutes a dangerous threat to our country's security" 

The SAPS has maintained for a long time that there is a single police service, and as such argue that the DSO was acting unconstitutionally, and it is hoped that the playing field has been well levelled for the integration of the two structures.  

It is not clear why the government of my country has failed to take action against the DSO when it rejected the law that requires that specific categories of personnel within it, should undergo security clearance by NIA.

One does not understand why our government did not see this as a threat to our national security. 

Chairperson, the Browse Mole Report will go down in the annals of our history as, indeed, one of the very dangerous and mysterious pieces of information peddling. Our Committee, after a thorough investigation, came to a conclusion that the activities of the DSO in relation to the production of the Browse Mole Report were very dangerous and indeed posed a threat to our National Interest.  

The contents of the said report are extremely inflammatory and divisive, to such an extent that they have the potential of destroying our new democracy.

It is very clear that this report was concocted by neo-Apartheidists who are driven by a nefarious and poisonous desire and ambition to plunge this country into an abysmal chaos. 

It is important to remind this house that our Committee is not influenced by any political position or ideology, and this ensures our independence in executing our oversight role. The Committee is ever guided by the principle of national security and national interest. It is our duty to detect any threat and alert the government accordingly. Therefore, this Parliament should take seriously what we say.

We were correct when we said the Browse Mole Report was a product of the DSO, and that the leadership of the DSO, in fact, authorised the investigation and the production of this intelligence document, which was outside the NPA Act. It was an illegal act.  

Again, we were correct when we warned the Minister in our previous debates, that the Government must expedite the regulation of private intelligence gathering activities and put measures in place that will reduce the risk of being exposed to information peddlers.  

NgesiZulu bengizothi: Lukhulu luyeza luyanyelela which is likely to plunge the country into an intelligence chaos. Remember, Mr Minister that those people who developed the Browse Mole Report used the very same private intelligence gathering activities. And what do we have now! Political confusion! Political divisions and chaos - and these things have a potential to destabilise this country. 

Having said all this, we must not throw the baby out with the water. We need to acknowledge that there are honourable people within the DSO who are working honestly, and we need to congratulate them.

 We are very worried about the controversy that surrounds the construction of the COMSEC building, so much that we had to ask the Auditor-General's office to conduct an in-depth investigation into this. The AG, inter alia, found that an irregular expenditure to the value of more than R970 000 for NIA and more than R3 million for COMSEC. 

What is worse is the fact that NIA did not disclose this amount as irregular in the financial statements. 

Again, due to the fact that there was no proper supply chain management policy in place for the full period, expenditure incurred to the amount of R1 622 378 was regarded as irregular. These expenses were not disclosed as irregular in the financial statements. 

The IFP supports the budget. 

Thank you. 

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Mr John Bhengu MP: 083 303 8723