I would also like to acknowledge the R2K, of which I am a member, and which has provided me with such a rich intellectual climate for this work. The collaboration between the MPDP and R2K has been an extremely important one, as the MPDP provides research resources for the activist work of R2K, which strengthens the work of both organisations: R2K uses the research to undertake informed advocacy, and the MPDP’s research is put to use, rather than gathering dust on the shelves of university libraries. In particular, I would like to acknowledge the support of the Secrecy and Securitisation Focus Group, and especially its convener, Murray Hunter, who has been unwavering in his support and his willingness to act as a sounding board. Both he and Heidi Swart read and commented on several chapters, and I thank them for their attentiveness.
The team at Wits University Press have been extremely supportive of this book from the moment I approached the press with the initial book idea. I would like to thank publisher Veronica Klipp, commissioning editor Roshan Cader, project manager Julie Miller and editor Russell Martin, the two anonymous peer reviewers who reviewed the manuscript, as well as the entire team that contributed towards the production of this book.
Sadly, but not unexpectedly, there are those whom I cannot thank as they failed to respond to interviews or requests for information. For most of 2017, I attempted to secure an interview with the Minister of State Security, but to no avail. Eventually, I asked the ministry to delegate the request to a suitable person in the SSA, but still did not receive a response. They have only themselves to blame if their voices are not included in this book. The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development and the office of the Inspector General of Intelligence refused interviews at the time of request, on the basis that the amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism had filed a constitutional challenge to sections of RICA, and as they were cited as respondents, they did not want to grant interviews until the case was concluded. I appreciate their responses, but my position on this matter is that the sub judice rule is largely an anachronism, in that they would have to prove substantial and demonstrable threats to the administration of justice for the rule to apply. In any event, there was no reason not to grant interviews once the respondents had filed their responding papers as their positions were known publicly, which was the case with the SSA. I also tried to secure an interview with the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC), but was unable to before the book went to print. Telkom turned down an interview request on the basis that company policy did not allow its officials to speak on behalf of the company with regard to legislation affecting the sector, and referred me to the Department of Justice: a bit odd for a company that is meant to operate at arm’s length from the government. A request for them to reconsider went unanswered. An interview request to Vastech yielded a bland statement, and my follow-up request for an interview went unanswered. While writing this book with little official information was difficult, it was not impossible. Happily, surveillance researchers are not dependent on official sources of information anymore; more investigative journalists and whistleblowers are shining a light into this dark and murky area of government, providing us with unprecedented amounts of information about its inner workings. Governments are losing control of the flow of information about how, why and when they spy on their citizens. This book would not have been possible without the important work of the whistleblowing site WikiLeaks and the people who provided it with information, and the incredibly principled actions of Edward Snowden, who made huge personal sacrifices to bring evidence of surveillance abuses to public attention. I remain indebted to them.
CHAPTER 3
FIGURE 3.1 Peaceful and unrest-related crowd management incidents between 1995 and 2013
CHAPTER 4
FIGURE 4.1 Total number of interception direction applications and reapplications in terms of RICA
FIGURE 4.2 Percentage of refusals of applications for interception directions
CHAPTER 8
TABLE 8.1 Factors affecting resistance to surveillance
IMAGES FROM LEAKED DOCUMENTS AND OTHER SOURCES
There are several references in the text and the footnotes to images that are in the public domain which are from leaked sources such as the National Security Agency and surveillance technology manufacturers. The publisher has chosen not to print these images, but they are available from the websites referred to in the notes. There are also references to images that come from other sources, but that could not be reproduced as they were not available in high-resolution formats. These are also available from websites, which are cited in the notes.
| ACLU | American Civil Liberties Union | |
| AFIS | Automated Fingerprint Information System | |
| AMCU | Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union | |
| ANC | African National Congress | |
| ANPR | Automatic number-plate recognition | |
| APC | Association for Progressive Communications | |
| APF | Anti-Privatisation Forum | |
| CAA | Civil Aviation Authority | |
| CALEA | Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act | |
| CBD | central business district | |
| CCTV | closed circuit television | |
| CIA | Central Intelligence Agency | |
| CID | Crime Intelligence Division | |
| COSATU | Congress of South African Trade Unions | |
| DA | Democratic Alliance | |
| DSM | Democratic Socialist Movement | |
| DSO | Directorate of Special Operations | |
| EFF | Economic Freedom Fighters | |
| EFF | Electronic Frontier Foundation | |
| eNATIS | Electronic National Administration Traffic Information System | |
| EPIC | Electronic Privacy Information Center | |
| EPIC |
|