Cyril Ramaphosa, the President, signs the General Intelligence Laws Amendment Bill into law.
Pretoria – President Cyril Ramaphosa has enacted the General Intelligence Laws Amendment Bill, marking a substantial reform of South Africa’s intelligence services, which will see enhanced oversight and accountability.
“The Amendment Act revises the National Strategic Intelligence Act of 1994, the Intelligence Services Act of 2002, and the Intelligence Services Oversight Act of 1994,” stated Vincent Magwenya, the President’s Spokesperson, on Friday, (28 March 2025).
“Among other changes, the Amendment Act disbands the existing State Security Agency as a national governmental department, replacing it with two distinct entities.”
The newly formed departments include the Foreign Intelligence Service (FIS), tasked with collecting foreign intelligence to pinpoint opportunities and threats to National Security, and the Domestic Intelligence Agency (DIA), which focuses on counter-intelligence and gathering domestic intelligence to identify domestic security threats.
Additionally, the Amendment Act reinstates the South African National Academy of Intelligence (SANAI) along with an Intelligence Training Institute aimed at supporting both Domestic and Foreign Intelligence capabilities.
“The extensive amendments implement the recommendations from the 2018 Presidential High-Level Review Panel on the State Security Agency (SSA) and from the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture, Corruption and Fraud in the Public Sector (the Zondo Commission),” Magwenya noted.
“The legislation also addresses concerns regarding the bulk interception of internet traffic by intelligence services entering or leaving South Africa by introducing new protocols that require authorisation from within the intelligence services, as well as court oversight on such interceptions.”
Magwenya further elaborated that this law ensures the administration, financial management, and expenditures of intelligence service entities are subject to the oversight of the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence— a multi-party Parliamentary committee that handles public complaints and monitors the finances and operations of these intelligence services.
“The newly ratified amendments also afford greater autonomy to the Inspector-General of Intelligence and the National Intelligence Coordinating Committee (NICOC) for making administrative and functional decisions,” Magwenya added.
