RICA AMENDMENT BILL READY TO LEAVE PARLIAMENT

RICA AMENDMENT BILL READY TO LEAVE PARLIAMENT

• 01 December 2023
• Parliament
• SA Legal Academy

The NCOP Committee on Security & Justice has adopted the Regulation of Interception of Communications & Provision of Communication-related Information Amendment Bill’s ‘B’ version. No further changes are proposed. This is according to a report tabled in the House on 30 November 2023.

As SA Legal Academy has regularly reported, the Bill’s purpose is to give effect to a 2021 Constitutional Court ruling on ‘adequate safeguards’ where the subject of surveillance is a practising journalist or lawyer. According to a memorandum on the Bill’s objects, this is in the context of a constitutionally enshrined obligation to protect the right to privacy, the right of access to the courts, and freedom of expression.

With that in mind, the Bill:

• provides for safeguards to address the fact that interception directions are sought and obtained ex parte
• provides for procedures to ensure that data obtained from communications interception is ‘managed lawfully and not used or interfered with unlawfully’
• prescribes the procedures to be followed in examining, copying, sharing, sorting through, using, storing or destroying the data, and
• provides for post-surveillance notification in certain circumstances.

Please click the links below for more information:

• Bill’s ‘B’ version
• parliamentary papers, including committee report (page 20)
• Constitutional Court judgment

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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