To spy or not to spy? Public dialogue series on Intelligence and Democracy in South Africa

The document summarizes a 2008 seminar on the democratic governance of intelligence in South Africa. Key discussions focused on the shift toward human security, the challenge of non-partisanship in post-liberation states, and criticisms regarding the perceived politicization of intelligence services and their failure to anticipate xenophobic violence. The seminar also addressed the contentious nature of the Protection of Information Bill.

• Minister Ronnie Kasrils argued that intelligence services reflect the values of their society and that democracy has shifted the focus of intelligence from military or regime security toward human security, creating a broad socio-economic mandate.
• Minister Kasrils identified the difficulty of achieving non-partisanship in post-liberation states and emerging democracies, noting that the South African intelligence community's strategy has been to 'deal with the rotten apples' while 'making the barrel rot proof'.
• Sandra Botha MP expressed concerns that South African intelligence services have been diverted from their role as national protectors to serve as the 'handmaiden of the ruling party and its government', and questioned the credibility of these structures regarding their failure to prevent xenophobic attacks.

APA

Institute for Security Studies (2008). To spy or not to spy? Public dialogue series on Intelligence and Democracy in South Africa. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/SPYREP030708.PDF

Chicago

Institute for Security Studies. To spy or not to spy? Public dialogue series on Intelligence and Democracy in South Africa. 2008. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/SPYREP030708.PDF.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Institute for Security Studies |title=To spy or not to spy? Public dialogue series on Intelligence and Democracy in South Africa |date=3 July 2008 |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/SPYREP030708.PDF |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{instituteforsecuritystudies2008spy, author = {{Institute for Security Studies}}, title = {{To spy or not to spy? Public dialogue series on Intelligence and Democracy in South Africa}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2008}, month = jul, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/SPYREP030708.PDF}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }