Celebrating Ten Years in Intelligence

Statement by Minister Ronnie Kasrils on the Occasion of the Tenth Anniversary of the Intelligence Services, January 2005

As a country, we will remember 2004 as the year that our young nation celebrated ten years of democracy. It was the year where all our people joined together in tribute to the significant strides that we had made in creating a new nation. However, what many tend to forget is that our ten year celebrations were in no small measure as a result of the hard work and diligence of members of the civilian Intelligence Services.

It is these brave compatriots, whose hard work is rarely seen or acknowledged, who not only played a significant role in steering our negotiated settlement, which ultimately led to the birth of our nation, but who also continued in the service of their country, by safeguarding our hard-won democratic gains, under the auspices of a new intelligence dispensation.

And so in 2005 our celebrations must continue. This is because this is the year which marks the tenth anniversary of the inauguration of our integrated intelligence community, established on 1 January 1995. In just ten years, we have made a decisive break with the excesses of our past and have moved successfully to a confident future, where former adversaries have been amalgamated into a unified whole, which draws its mandate from our Constitution and truly serves in the national interest.

Today, we can boast of an intelligence community which is reflective of the broader demographics of our society. It is a community which is seized with a common vision to defend the country and  uphold the human rights of all our people as well as champion the integrity of our democratic institutions and the state. It is a community, which sees the maintenance of our country’s national security as integrally linked to the sustainable development of the region, the continent and the world.

Our positive contribution to post-conflict reconstruction processes in countries recovering from war is indicative of this. Our breakthroughs in respect of the threat of terrorism as well as the arrests concerning the proliferation of mass destructive technologies all bear testimony to this.

It is therefore with great pride that I take this opportunity to express our nation’s gratitude to those of our members who were there at our inception and remain within our ranks today. Your loyalty to the Services is deeply appreciated, as is your commitment to the creation of a better life for all our people. Gratitude must also be extended to the leadership of the Services, both former Ministers and Directors-General, who  brought us to where we are today. It is these collective efforts which have enabled us to achieve what no other country has in such a short space of time. And those who have joined our Services since shall be inspired to help build on the foundations that have been laid.

Let us use this opportunity not only to celebrate our first decade but also to gear ourselves for the enormous challenges which lie ahead.

Ronnie Kasrils, MP

Minister for Intelligence Services