South African Human Rights Commission warned National Intelligence Agency

By on March 19, 2010

NIAThe South African Human Rights Commission has criticized the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) after failing to get information for the development of an early warning system meant to prevent attacks on foreign nationals.

Commission chairman Lawrence Mushwana reported that the NIA had failed to provide a requested submission on its findings after the xenophobic violence of 2008.

“Any interaction would assist in developing an early warning system,” he said during the launch of the commission’s report on the wave of violence in which 62 people were killed. However, Brian Dube, spokesman for the State Security Agency, which incorporates the NIA, said no “formal notification” had been received from the commission.

The commission’s report came amid fears by government officials of a recurrence of the xenophobic violence. The commission’s Cape Town office alerted police on Wednesday the 17th March to pamphlets in Samora Machel informal settlement, near Philippi, warning foreigners to vacate by Monday. Anti-foreigner attacks have accompanied the wave of service delivery protests that has been building since last year.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.