NATIONAL ASSEMBLY  

QUESTION NO. 437

FOR WRITTEN REPLY    

DATE OF PUBLICATION IN THE INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: 13 AUGUST 2004

(INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO: 11-2004)

N547E

Adv PS Swart (DA) to ask the Minister for Intelligence: 

Whether the purchase price of Sunset Beach guest house was paid for from the budget of (a) his department or (b) any particular intelligence agency; if not, from which department’s budget did the money come; if so, from which budget;

Whether the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence was informed of the decision to purchase the property; if not, why not; if so, (a) on what date and (b) what was the view of the Committee regarding this purchase;

(a) what was the total cost to the State of (i) the purchase, (ii) r efurbishment, (iii) equipping, (iv) securing and (v) staffing of this guest house and (b) what was the purpose for which the guest house was purchased;

Whether consideration was given to using an existing state property for this purpose; if not, why not; if so, (a) what are the relevant details and (b) why was it decided to purchase a new property instead;

Whether (a) the former Minister of Intelligence and (b) any other government members and/ or officials every stayed at this guest house; if so, why in each case?

Reply: 

The Honourable Member is asking questions similar to the ones he had posed to me in Question No. 9 on 21 May 2004 which I have replied to. 

As mentioned in my previous response, the JSCI was briefed by the Ministry for Intelligence Services and the National Intelligence Agency on these matters and I again wish to refer the Honourable Member to the JSCI public report to Parliament which was adopted by the National Assembly on the 14th May 2003 and was published in the ATC Report No 60/2003 on 22 May 2003. 

The Honourable Member is kindly referred to the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence for further enquiries on the matter.