Invitation: Roundtable on recommended reforms to RICA
10:00-12:00, Wednesday 31 May 2023
Physical venue: Women’s Jail Lekgotla Room, Constitution Hill, Johannesburg
Register to access virtual link: https://bit.ly/3q1WOJP
Intelwatch invites you to a roundtable to present our first research output: Reforming communications surveillance in South Africa: Recommendations in the wake of the AmaBhungane judgment and beyond.
This report, commissioned in partnership with the Media Policy and Democracy Project, seeks to map out recommended reforms following the Constitutional Court’s 2021 judgment in AmaBhungane, which struck down key aspects of South Africa’s interception law, the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act (RICA).
The case, brought by the AmaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism, has paved the way for vital legislative reforms to improve safeguards and transparency in state surveillance in South Africa, after mounting evidence that these powers have been abused. The Court gave Parliament three years to make suitable amendments to RICA to address the Act’s constitutional deficiencies.
This new report is authored by Catherine Kruyer, a member of the Johannesburg Society of Advocates. The recommendations will be tabled with the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development in order to assist policymakers in mapping out options for reform, and to ensure that the reform process results in a law that follows the Court’s directions, protects constitutional rights, and conforms to international best practice.
This roundtable is an opportunity for interested stakeholders to unpack and discuss Ms Kruyer’s findings, and consider next steps to ensure the post-AmaBhungane reform process achieves meaningful, lasting, and long overdue change.
Intelwatch is a non-profit organisation based in South Africa and dedicated to strengthening public oversight of state and private intelligence and surveillance capabilities both regionally and globally. Intelwatch seeks to carry forward the work of the Media Policy and Democracy Project, a university-based research collaboration from 2012 to 2023 and which has become a significant authority on surveillance oversight in Southern Africa.
