Spy Bill: 'No legal reason' why SSA should control IGI, says Parliament legal advisor

The State Security Agency (SSA) has "no legal reason" to keep a rein on the body that is supposed to oversee them, the Office of the Inspector-General of Intelligence (OIGI), a parliamentary legal advisor told the ad hoc committee processing the General Intelligence Laws Amendment Bill (GILAB).

GILAB is meant to address the failings of the SSA during the excesses of the Zuma era, as highlighted by the High Level Review Panel, chaired by former minister Sydney Mufamadi, that found the SSA had "become a parallel intelligence structure serving a faction of the ruling party and, in particular, the personal political interests of the sitting president of the party and country".

Yet, the Ramaphosa administration tasked the SSA with drafting the GILAB.